Infatuation
by MagenKyotenChiten
Summary: [SasSakIta] DARK. When Sasuke announces his marriage to another girl, Sakura becomes heartbroken. While wallowing in her sorrows, she meets a familiar stranger in a place she least expects and starts a dangerous game with him.
1. The Beginning & Sorrow

Infatuation

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Summary: When Sasuke announces his marriage to another girl, Sakura becomes heartbroken. While wallowing in her sorrows, she meets a familiar stranger in a place she least expects and starts a dangerous game with him.

Summary 2: Sasuke announces his marriage to another girl, Sakura becomes heartbroken. While wallowing in her sorrows, she meets a familiar stranger in a place she least expects and starts an unhealthy relationship with him.

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Sakura would never forget the day, when she saw that three-carat ring on her finger. His arm slung around her slim shoulders in a protective way, meaning she was more that just a friend. The realization hit her hard and clear once she saw the rock on her finger. She watched the couple happily accept blessings. She saw the beaming smile on her face and the trademark smirk on his face, looking much happier than usual. Crowds of people surrounded them and were congratulating the happy couple.

She felt herself freeze up, shoulders tense and hands trembling. _No._ This wasn't right, it should have been her standing next to him, receiving the blessings and congratulations with him, glowing and beaming at the crowd, and staring lovingly into his eyes, not _her. _

It felt like someone had wrenched out her heart out of her body and stomped on it numerous times. It felt like someone had repeatedly stabbed her all over. Bile was rising up in her mouth. She felt dizzy and weak like she was going to throw up. Her pulse was rapid. Her hands were clammy and sweaty. Her knees buckled. It was suddenly hard to breathe and she was having a panic attack. _This was not happening, _she told herself. She pinched her herself, hoping it was a dream, no a horrible nightmare. But it was real and true. He probably had done this on purpose, purposely announcing his engagement publicly only two blocks away from her house.

Why? What was so good about her? How was she better than Sakura? How could he pick a girl that had only been for a short time, over her, a girl he knew since childhood, who was his teammate, comrade, and friend since he was twelve? She knew him better than her. Sakura had loved him longer than her, she was willing to do anything for him, even die for him. She had spent so much time and effort with Naruto to save him from Orochimaru's clutches. She had dated no one, turning down men left and right and waited for him. Not a single day went by, after he had left the village until she thought of him.

Even when he came back to the village with that group of his, Hebi, after killing Itachi, she still loved him. She was part of the few people that welcomed him when he arrived. She was the one with Naruto, who convinced the village council that he wasn't a traitor or a threat to the village. She was the one who made the villager's change their minds and accept him once again was one of their own after and she was the one that convinced Tsunade to make him an official leaf ninja again after many months. She convinced the village that his comrades from Hebi, that she didn't even like, were not threats.

She wasn't the weak, pathetic twelve year-old girl she was before anymore. She had become strong; she had become Tsunade's apprentice, and a well-known medic famed for her quick tactic, intelligence, and strength around all of the ninja villages. She had grew beautiful over the years with a curvy figure and she was good-natured not like before.

He owed so much to her.

No, it was _that_ girl'_s _fault. Sakura glanced at her in his arms, glowing, smiling, laughing, looking happy, as she flipped her long, silky, raven hair. Her eyes were sparking through her glasses. That stupid, horrible, vain, girl who had been one of his comrades in the Hebi gang he had created, his companions were former minions of Orochimaru.

They had at first, did not want to allow his comrades in the village for obvious reasons but Sasuke threatened to leave if his comrades were not allowed to enter the village. As Sasuke became an official leaf ninja, two of his comrades Suigestu and Jugo left the village, dropping by sometimes. But that annoying female companion of his, Karin stayed. It was clear that she thought of him as something more that a comrade, the way she acted so frivolous around him. At first sight and the way she acted with Sasuke, Sakura dislike Karin, thinking of her as a minor rival for Sasuke. That's what she thought in the beginning.

But things changed once, Karin decided to also become an official leaf ninja. She passed the test with flying colors, and was no doubt strong in all the categories: Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Taijutsu and was also strong as a medic. The village began to respect Karin. No doubt she had to strong to be one of Orochimaru's jail guards. Sakura's status as one of the village's strongest female ninjas began to wane, while Karin's status and reputation grew.

Tsunade even began to favor Karin, praising her great skills. Sakura was sure that Tsunade would have asked Karin to be one of her apprentices if Anko hadn't taken her under her wing as her apprentices first. Sakura began to feel worst and worst as Tsunade began to praise Karin more and more.

Not only did Karin steal her status from her, she stole even more. Karin stole her friends. She got along with everyone, excluding Sakura. She was one of the only females that Sasuke tolerated, she was polite to Hinata, even though she argued with Naruto, they were good friends, she chatted with Tenten about the latest weapons, and she and Ino were like best friends. Karin even got along with Neji and Kakashi. But she absolutely hated Sakura. Of course, she pretended to be polite to her in public, but she threw Sakura dirty looks when no one was looking and humiliated Sakura in front of everyone, making her look like the bad one. Everyone began to invite Karin along every time they went out and this was making Sakura extremely angry and uncomfortable.

Sakura began to feel small as her self-esteem began to dwindle, she began to see the backs of her beloved friends again like she did when was twelve and weak and pathetic.

_After bringing Sasuke and his comrades to the village gate, Sakura sees a bored-looking girl standing a few feet away from Sasuke, looking annoyed. Black glasses with oval frames are perched on her tiny pert upright nose, her black eyes furrowed and her small pink lips are pursed. _

_She's probably a comrade of Sasuke's, Sakura thought. She made her way to the strange girl. "Hi." Sakura said with a warm smile. "Welcome to leaf village, I'm –"_

"_Who asked you to introduce yourself to me? I don't think you're someone I really need to know. And I don't think your worthy of knowing who I am." She interrupted Sakura. _

She had tried to be polite to Karin, but Karin made it clear and they would not be friends. So, she gave up. Sakura tried telling her friends about how bitchy Karin was to her, but they refused to listen. The numerous times, she attempted to tell Ino. But Ino bluntly didn't believe her.

"Sakura. You're making a big deal about nothing. Karin just feels a little threatened by you; since you two share the same friends and you also like Sasuke. Just try to get to know her; she's not that bad. I doubt she hates you. She just probably sees you as a rival. Besides, you're the one making a big deal about her, you've made it clear, that you dislike her from the beginning and you always leave when's she's around." Ino would tell her every time.

Sakura had even tried telling Naruto, Kakashi, and Hinata. But they too said something similar to Ino's words. Her friends began to leave her out as Karin made her look bad.

_Sakura walks to Ichiraku Ramen, exhausted, after a long day of work at the hospital. She's hot, tired, and sweaty. Her feet ache with each step and her stomach loudly rumbles. There are dark rings around her eyes. She's expecting a quiet night; just a hot bowl of steaming ramen and no one except her in the booth and maybe a hearty talk with ayame. But she sees and hears the exact opposite; the booth is crowded and full of laughter and smells of delicious food. She thinks a bunch of chunin with no work for the night inhabit the booth but she walks closer only to find all of friends are the ones crowding the small restaurant: emitting pearls of merry laughter, eating ramen. Her eyes are wide in disbelief, there's a lump in her throat, and her hands are shaking in anger. Her friends don't even notice her standing the shadows, with a fallen look on her face. She grinds her teeth and somehow manages to gather herself together. _

"_Hi, guys!" She says with a fake cheery voice._

_The laughter stops. Everyone freezes. Naruto is midway eating a ramen noodle with his chopsticks. _

_Finally, Naruto speaks. "Uh…Sakura-chan, what a pleasant surprise! We weren't expecting you. It was uh…ah… a last minute thing and we didn't think you'd want to come since you would be tired from working at the hospital and everything." He says apologetically, scratching the back of his head. _

"_Yeah." Ino adds, laughing nervously._

_She flashes them a fake smile. "Oh, ok. But didn't you guys have work tonight? That's why we canceled tonight for ramen. So did, your mission get canceled at the last minute?"_

"_Y-yyes. T-tsunade-sssama told us to have an f -fffun night out I-instead and we could do the -mmission in the m-mmorning so ww-we d-ddecided to c-ccome to I-iichiraku r-rramen. " Hinata stutters, looking down nervously, playing with her fingers. _

_Sakura knew something was fishy. Hinata rarely ever stutters anymore unless she was lying or if she was scared and Tsunade rarely ever canceled missions. _

_She knew that she ruined things by showing up. No one looks happy, except Karin, who had a big fat smirk on her face directed at Sakura... This was supposed to be a secret fun outing with out her and with out her knowing. She pretended to believe them. "Shishou was generous to you guys, lucky. Have fun, I'm going home for a late night sleep." She winks at them and waves. She knows that if she says anymore her voice will quaver, giving away her true feelings. _

_She started walking home, but when she far away enough from Ichiraku, she starts to run home. Tears of frustration fill her eyes. She hates feeling like this; she hates her friends excluding her out. But mostly of all, all of her bitter feelings are directed to Karin. _

_The next day, Ino attempted to talk to her. "Sakura… we didn't mean to exclude you on purpose. Karin was just uncomfortable with you coming along. So, we just wanted her to feel welcome…" She trailed off. _

_Sakura felt anger bubbling up in her. "So, you choose her over me! You choose a girl that you barely even know over me over silly claims that I've been a bitch to her, instead of believing your best friend since childhood, someone you can trust!" _

_Ino's cerulean blue eyes narrowed into tiny slits. "We were trying to make her feel welcome unlike you! She cries, Sakura! You've been mean to her from the start. You refuse to accept her. And you usually are the one to welcome someone new to our group. I don't blame her for feeling uncomfortable with you coming. It's like I don't know you anymore!" She spat out angrily._

_Sakura's face hardened. Why couldn't anyone see who this two-faced bitch for who she really was? Why were they brainwashed by her? She slammed the door right in Ino's face. She wanted to pull out her hair. Everything was suddenly her fault. _

Soon, everyone was drawing farther and farther away from Sakura. No one said hello when they passed her in the marketplace, friends rarely talked to her, and team seven was falling apart. Practices and meetings were distance and uncomfortable, Kakashi seemed to go harder and criticize her each time, Naruto rarely said anything to her, and Sasuke just ignored her. Any trace of friendship or communication she had with him seemed to be gone.

She even rarely saw Tsunade and Shizune, her mentors anymore. They always seemed to be extra busy and only talked to her to tell her that when she was needed at the hospital. She was alone with no friends, with out anyone to talk to.

As dreary things were, Sakura still had hope. No matter what, she hoped things would get better. As that began to dwindle as doubt filled her mind and things got worst, this small shard of hope was the only thing that kept her going.

But when she saw that ring on her finger, that rock shiny and dazzling and the smile on her face and the smirk on his, this small shard of hope broke into tiny pieces. She had absolutely nothing left at all. Her worst nightmare had come true. Things had truly become worst than she had imagined.

Something in her that moment broke, she didn't know what it was. But she was never the same after that moment. _Thump. _The scroll she was supposed to deliver to Tsunade-sama slipped out of the grasp of her shaking hands and fell unto the asphalt. Time had seemed to stop. She had slipped into shock. Then the worst scenario occurred, Karin had seemed to spot her in the crowd.

"Well, if it isn't Sakura!" Her voice had been sugary sweet, dripping with venom as she beckoned her over with a wave of one of her soft, smooth, pale, manicured hands. Glee was apparent as the smirk on her face appeared to get bigger and bigger. _Shoot. _Sakura's mind raced, thinking of the possible excuses and escapes to avoid this extremely uncomfortable meeting. But there was no way to avoid this meeting with out making herself look bad.

People who had formed a crowd a couple had moved out of her way and had made a path for her to reach them. The whispers in the crowd echoed in her ear as everyone's eyes were on her. Her ears burned and her stomached flopped. She blinked away the tears that had formed in her eyes and took a deep breath. She stared the couple in the eye as she tried to walk gracefully towards the couple, but her legs felt like legs and she ended up looking clumsy. She almost tripped over her feet and fell into the crowd and steadied herself. All of it was an act, she just wanted to run home and cry until no more tears came.

She somehow managed to twist her lips into a slight smile. "Hi. Oh wow, you guys. I didn't know. So sudden. When did it happen?" She forced fake enthusiasm in her voice.

If Karin was surprised that she hadn't broken down that second, she didn't show it. She surveyed Sakura up and down, hunting for her weakness. "It was waiting to happen. We've dating for some time." She said as if it was obvious that everyone knew they were a couple. "A couple of weeks ago. We announced our engagement public today but we told family and friends earlier." She continued to say smirking, putting much emphasis on "family and friends."

Sakura winced. She was burned. That girl was a pure bitch. There was no need to shove it in her face even more. The crowd was staring at her, waiting to see how she would take the comment. Everyone in Konoha knew that she loved Sasuke and that she still loved even now. They were waiting for her to burst into tears and be the jealous vengeful lover.

Not to mention, they had announced their engagement public two blocks away from her house.

"Oh. Well, I have been spending most of these of my days in the hospital. I rarely get time off… I only found out today. So, how did it happen? Who was the one who proposed?" She asked trying to look unperturbed, but her legs were trembling.

Her eyes were catty and spiteful to Sakura. Her face was glowing. "Sasuke, of course." She squashed Sasuke's muscled arm against her large perky breasts, snuggling it. "Of course, you don't probably want to know how." She said coyly, looking at Sasuke. Sasuke in return, grunted.

Sakura wanted to throw up. She looked a little green and also looked sick. "That's a nice ring! How many carats is it?" She glared at the ridiculously large diamond, which reflected so much light that it had almost blinded her. It was amazing how that small band of gold that the diamond was perched on could stand its weight. Small clusters of smaller but still large diamonds surrounded the larger diamond in an intricate arrangement and white gold encrusted all the diamonds in a unique pattern. That must have taken a huge chunk out of Sasuke's paycheck.

"It's three-carat and especially made in water country, known for their diamonds. It's one of a kind." She bragged, shoving the ring practically under Sakura's nose.

""So… when's the wedding?" She twirled a pink lock of hair nervously.

The grin on her smug face grew even wider. "In a year or so. It's going to be the biggest wedding Konoha's ever seen. The entire village is invited of course, excluding some people." She stared straight at Sakura, when she said this.

There was only so much she could endure. The whispers among the crowd that was getting larger with each passing moment were getting louder. She made a strangled, defeated noise. She stared Sasuke in the eye. "Why?" She croaked. Sasuke ignored her gaze wrapping wife's petite frame with his strong muscular arms, bringing her closer to him. An annoyed look was settled on his face now. "Sakura…" He began in a flat, irritated voice like she was a troublesome child. There was shit-eating grin on Karin's face.

Now, this really hurt her. Even, Sasuke was turning against her. No, he had been against her since the beginning. But it hurt for him to treat her like he did when she was younger like she was some stupid, lovesick girl.

Her hands were shaking uncontrollably. Her eyes were wide, hurt, and accusing. She could barely stand. The act was over. The crowd was getting what they wanted, the mighty apprentice upset and jealous like a child over her love getting married.

"Give her some time, dear. She's in shock. She still had that stupid school-girl crush on you, remember? I was waiting for to cut to the crap and cry like the little weak bitch she is. She's also upset that she lost to me, she's jealous of me since I'm better than her in everything. Not to mention, she's a pathetically weak ninja. She has no accomplishments, whatsoever. Only kami-sama knows how she was promoted to chunin. Anyways, she still not invited not invited to our wedding. I'm afraid, she might cause some problems but I doubt she could come with out having a mental breakdown." She told her fiancée, nonchalantly, completely ignoring Sakura, who was standing right in front of them.

Sasuke didn't say anything; he cupped her chin and brought his mouth to hers. The kiss was sensual.

Their cheeks brushed. Sakura could hear him panting and her small whimpers. His hands were all of her body and her small back was arched in pleasure. Sakura stared at them in anger, hatred and resentment. This was the last straw. But how dare they embrace in front of her!

She ran away from them in the opposite direction towards home, hot tears had streamed down her checks. She curled herself in a small ball and cried and cried until her eyes could shed no more tears. Her mind was jumpy and confused. She kept on throwing up all that she ate until she threw up blood. She tasted the crimson liquid in her mouth and watched how it coated the white toilet and her fingers, a brilliant red. She was a mess and everyone in Konoha knew that. She didn't dare step out of her house for that would confirm the rumors that the medic nin was a mess.

She endured the pathetic attempts her friends made to cheer her up and the criticism from them.

First from Ino:

Ino had skeptically creased a perfectly plucked blond brow. "Sakura, why can't you be happy for them instead being bitter, angry, upset, and so angsty? It's really pathetic. You're acting like a child throwing a fit over a toy. I don't understand why can't let him go. And I still don't understand why your feelings didn't fade for him. He never had feelings for us or cared for us. At least, he has some feelings, even though it is for a different person. Why can't you accept it, he has found someone else? Why can't you accept, Karin is his wife and you aren't? She's a perfectly nice girl, similar to you; the both of you would be friends if you just didn't make things difficult. There are plenty of fish in the sea. There are guys that handsomer than Sasuke that do much better in the personality department! Hmm? So, how about it?" She looked at Sakura eagerly for a response.

But Sakura was listlessly staring at the walls, in some other world, as if Ino wasn't there.

Ino threw her hands in the air in frustration. "You are entirely hopeless. Your acting like someone died! This is supposed to be a happy occasion. Sasuke, for finally finding somebody and you, for finally moving on, forgetting about him and set to find a new man. I even bought you groceries and toiletries and even new clothes from the market, since everyone said that you haven't been out of your house for a month. And you can't even answer me! I'm trying to help you, Sakura." She shrieked, glaring at Sakura, boring holes at her with her eyes.

Finally, she sighed. "At least take a shower and go change your clothes. You smell horrible." She had stormed out Sakura's house in defeat. "Don't worry! I'll be back!" She yelled at Sakura, shaking her fists, before leaving.

Then Naruto:

"Sakura-chan… I know this is hard for you. But please get yourself back together. Teme isn't worth your time and tears. He didn't and still doesn't deserve your love. Don't cry over a bastard like him! You can do so much better." He had told her, his sapphire eyes shining with emotion and love for his friend, his hands shaking in sadness and anger for his friend.

He had stormed into her house a week after Ino appeared. Naruto had been anxious to see her, but let Ino visit her first, hoping that she would bring some sense into her. But it had not worked and here he was, on her couch right next to her sad, depressed, lonely self after he had broken the door of her house down into smithereens.

Her eyes were blank like before with Ino, staring for on and on at nothing. "I…love…him…how…could…have….he…done…this…to…me?" she managed to choke out this time. "You…don't…understand." Tears began to flow freely down her face once again. One teardrop broke the dam, as she began to bawl loudly. Her eyes had been red-rimmed and bloodshot.

"You're right. I don't know." For once the blonde bubbling fox boy was quiet. He only glanced at his friend sadly before silently exiting the house. He had given up. Sakura later on couldn't help and think in disgust for how pathetic he was for giving up on her so early, if he tried harder, he may have saved her.

Even Kakashi had tried: daring to show his face after trying to shy away from all the other members of team seven. He had brought take-out from Ichiraku ramen and her favorite kind of ramen noodles. He had placed the steaming bowl of ramen in front of her.

For once, the lazy good-natured porn-reading silver haired man had been serious, as he had sat before her. He was never a one to comfort people. "Sakura…" He started out gently, while gently sipping some miso soup. "I know it hurts. Unbelievable or not, your old sensei went through something similar. It takes time to heal, time to realize, and time… to understand and accept. Love hurts and it always will."

Her sensei rarely ever showed tenderness or emotion. She still remembered how uncomfortable he was, how he bristled and wouldn't stop tapping his left foot. She knew he has had a hard life, becoming an adult at young age, born in a constant-war era, and losing everyone precious to him. It was hard for him. She had wanted to believe her sensei and cry in his arms, while he held her. She had wanted to believe him. But she couldn't. The hard, cold, emotionless Kakashi from Team 7 meetings telling her to try harder, go faster, and put more effort still lingered in her mind. For some reason, he was the only Kakashi she remembered. This new tender and caring Kaka-sensei had been new.

She knew from the time he first saw her at the academy, he thought she was a hopeless girl not fit to be a ninja, only head over heels in a foolish school girl crush on her teammate, assuming she would be the weakest member in the team and pose to only be a problem in the future. That was true at first, Sakura had a quick, tactful, smart, strong, strategic mind and a weak body and she had been only preoccupied with Sasuke, not bothering about him or Naruto. The girl who had no opinion, who always agreed with Sasuke no matter what. The girl who probably could never be useful, who would be stuck behind, tagging along behind them. He had made no attempt to help her, when she had trouble doing jutsus and exercises and warm-ups that Sasuke and Naruto could do easily. Frankly, he had been fed up and tired of her. He would only get irritated when he saw she couldn't do it and would order her to do a hundred more of something she didn't have the physically capability to do. Instead, he focused his attention Naruto and mainly on Sasuke. He rarely praised her and the only time Sakura could remember he had complimented her was way back in their genin days for excellent chakra control, for sending enough chakra to her feet, making her able to walk up the trees quickly before Sasuke and Naruto.

There were so many times when Sakura tried so hard but was too weak to do anything. It made her feel small, useless, hopeless, and stupid. It was the main reason, why she had marched straight up to Tsunade's office and begged to be her apprentice, so she could be stronger and do something to help her teammates instead of trying so hard and failing.

But even so, after she had become strong, she had gotten almost nothing from him, except for a mildly surprised expression when she had punched the ground and earth and dirt had split and cracked under him during the second bell test with Naruto. He had been more impressed by Naruto improvement than hers. He had finally learned how to control that immerse chakra from nine-tails that was in him. Jiraiya's training had really impressed him.

Not to mention, he had ignored Naruto and Sakura numerous times after Sasuke had left the village. She had rarely seen him and when she did, he had made no effort to greet her and would disappear in a poof with that stupid, smutty book of his.

She had desperately wanted to accept this new kinder Kaka-sensei. But she couldn't, it had probably been an act. She had refused to listen to her heart. She had used her head.

"…What…do…you…know? … You never liked me… You…thought…Naruto…..and…him…were…always…better…you…think…I'm weak…" Her voice was cracking. Tears were falling faster than before, as she had refused to look at him. Her lips were cracked and bleeding and stung slightly as she tasted her own salty tears. Her nose had been dripping.

Her pink unruly, messy, frizzy, greasy hair that hadn't been brushed in weeks covered her eyes. She had buried her head in her hands, releasing heart-rattling sobs.

"Please…leave…me…alone." She managed to say.

"Sakura…" His voice had been desperate and sad. But he had obeyed her wishes.

She hadn't seen the look on his face when he left. Later on, she wondered whether he had been sad, angry, upset or had felt nothing.

Days began to pass by, weeks, and soon months. Many so-called "friends" had visited her and had tried to encourage her to get back on her feet. But it had done nothing to help; their useless sucking-up didn't flatter her. She knew they felt guilty about what happened.

But slowly, step by step like a small toddler learning how to walk, she began to pick the broken pieces of herself. She began to heal by herself. But it was obvious she would never be the same.

She began to realize and grasp the situation. And she began to accept. But she would never forgive. She began to withdraw from the world in her head she had hid in for the past few months and adjust to everyday to life.

She started to sleep again, since she was so tired and had not been able to sleep those past few months with her mind such a mess. It had been a dreamless but peaceful slumber. She needed to regain her energy.

Whatever what it had seemed to be forever, the first thing, she did after she woke up, was take a shower, which she hadn't done in the past few months. It had felt so good, while she was washing all the dirt and grime that accumulated on her, she was also washing away her old, past, pathetic self, the horrible memories of the past few months. She was throwing the past away and had been reborn, starting over new.

She tried on a new change of clothes, only to discover they were too big, loosely hanging of her frame. She had lost some poundage since that day. But she didn't care. She had in the past, always been trying to some weight and now she had finally done that, but now it didn't matter much.

And then she did the task that she had been afraid to do these past months: was step outside her house. She had inhaled the scent of earth and grass and the scents of spices and foods mixed in: was the familiar smell of the village.

The moment she stepped out of her small house, heads turned left and right in curiosity and shock. She could feel everyone's eyes on her and smiled a thin-lipped but genuine smile. No one greeted her as she walked briskly through the village.

She had only one destination in mind: The Hokage tower in her mind. She burst through the large, looming and almost forbidding doors of the tower.

"Where's Tsunade-sama? I need to speak to her." She asked the receptionist coolly, her face an emotionless mask.

The receptionist didn't bother to look at her. "She's busy. You can't be anyone to see the Hokage-sama, you know." She said, clearly looking busy, as she had been scribbling down and staring at some paperwork, which her desk was full to the brim of.

"Do you know who I am?" Sakura's voice contained no anger but was icy.

Finally, the receptionist looked up and gulped. A young girl probably no older than Sakura and no doubt new to the job. "Ah, sorry… Sakura-sama!" It had seemed she had forgotten Sakura's name but finally remembered in the last few moments. "She's in her office. Go on right ahead and see her!" She managed to say.

Sakura paid no attention to the young receptionist as she stormed towards Tsunade's office.

"Sakura?" She said. Shock was apparent on Tsunade's face. For once, her shishou was sober. It was unusual for a sake bottle not to accompany Tsunade. Usually, empty green sake bottles were rolling all over the place and littered the floor and Sakura had been the one always to pick them up. Tsunade looked better than she had been in ages. Her complexion was fairer and she seemed to be a little healthier but of course like always she was tired.

She stared her mentor and her teacher straight in the eye. She had decided to skip over greetings and get straight to the point. "Shishou. I want to join ANBU. I no longer want to work at the hospital."

Tsunade's jaw dropped, obviously in surprise. Surely, she had wanted to protest but she decided against it and kept her mouth shut. She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips, obviously looking unhappy about Sakura request. "… Fine" She sighed as she looked at her young apprentice. "Are you sure about this, Sakura?" She asked her apprentice warily. "Is this what you want? ANBU is no easy job. Life is hard and there so much you must sacrifice to commit to ANBU."

Her eyes were fixed on Tsunade. Her drive to do more, learn more, experience more, and to become stronger was leading. The ache in her, the determination, the impulse, rapacity to become one of the ANBU was clear. "I know. I know ANBU is a strict and highly secretive and dangerous organization. I am willing to give up anything to join. I have no qualms. I want to join."

She peered sorrowfully at the younger women, her arms crossed, making her ample bust even bigger. "Sakura, you aren't doing this because of…him?" She had trailed off.

Sakura's posture had immediately stiffened. So many emotions had swirled through her mind at the mention of him.

"No. Shishou, I'm not doing this for him. I'm doing this for myself. I need to allow myself to move on and I want a new assignment, I'm tired of working at the hospital." She told her former teacher gently.

Her shoulders sagged in defeat as she gave up. "Alright, Sakura. I'll arrange for you to take the ANBU exam as soon as possible." She said hastily. Her sharp features softened for a moment. "But remember, Sakura, if ANBU doesn't go so well, you are always welcomed back here or if you ever need any help ever, please let me know. I'm always here for you." She told Sakura with obvious fondness for her former student. She slid a comforting slim hand over Sakura's bony pale hand and squeezed it for a brief moment.

Then there was silence. Sakura regarded her teacher with pure appreciation, affection and sadness. Her eyes and expression were emotional. It had been a mournful moment since they had both known that Sakura would not come back again or ask Tsunade for help.

"Thank you, Tsunade-sama. Thank you for everything." She whispered, bowing down before her as a sign of respect, before leaving.

As she strolled through the familiar yet so unfamiliar cobblestone streets of Konoha, her heart felt considerably lighter but was still heavy like a sinking stone in water. She felt holes burned in her back from the glares, the citizens of Konoha directed at her and the stares from curious villagers. She paid for a meager amount of food and sanitary items at the grocery store before deciding to go for shopping for clothes.

In the past, Sakura had always been excited about shopping. She usually had gotten a joy from searching for the best quality clothes, trying them on and seeing how it looked in the mirror. But not anymore, shopping now felt like an annoying everyday task like washing the dishes or taking out the task. She brushed off greetings from former acquaintances and friends as she entered the store.

She listlessly searched clothing rack after rack for clothes that seemed comfortable, easy to move, and somehow or somewhat appealed to her. She tried on the clothes she had picked out in the dressing room in front of a mirror, not caring if she looked good in them only bothering to see if they fit.

After she had bought her purchased items, Sakura took a quick look at the weapons store, buying some shruikens and kunais amongst some other weapons. It had been quite some time for her to buy and upgrade weapons and besides a ninja could never have too many weapons, which were quite useful battle and could sometimes even be one's trump card.

She went home only to leave all of her newly purchased items before heading to team seven's training grounds. It was a lonely place with an abundant amount of land, trees, and not to mention booby-traps. But many of team seven's memories had taken place there, from the time they had been small-fry genins. Recently, it had been a deserted area since no one in team seven had ever bothered much to visit anymore. As the wind howled, causing the trees billow violently, Sakura found herself drifting down memory lane, thinking about the past.

So much had changed since that day that Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto had graduated from the academy, waiting in that small steamy classroom waiting for their new sensei, glaring at each other.

Team Seven from the beginning had been an odd team. Naruto - the strange, young bumbling blonde who had been the outcast of the village, Sasuke - the sulky, handsome, always scowling, ever-so popular, Uchiha avenger, who had lost his entire family when his elder brother had decided to kill them all except him, for some odd reason on that one faithful night, Kaka-sensei – the weird, cryptic, perverted, always late, funny, strict, strong, laid-back jounin, who had been the prodigy of his time, and her, Sakura – the stupid but smart, weak, skinny, frail, whiny, pink-haired girl with a big forehead, who didn't come from any prestigious ninja clan or have any kind of bloodline, and was the first one to be a ninja in her family.

Team seven had been shaky, at least. It had been every man for himself; everyone had their own selfish goals and dreams for themselves. Then slowly, each practice session and each mission whether it was a B-ranked mission or a D-rank mission had brought them together, bringing them closer together. Friendships and bonds of trust had been formed.

So much had changed again, that night Sasuke left the village for Orochimaru, knocking out Sakura, his last words to her on that night had only been mere "Thank You" after she had proclaimed her love and her life for him.

The friendships and bonds and promises they had all made had been shattered and were finished that night. There was no Team Seven after that night. Only a broken-hearted girl, boy, sensei who had been determined to bring him back. She had never been the same that night. That was the night, she vowed she would change and she did. But now she realized that she still had a long way too go. She had been too soft as a ninja, always expressing her expressions, easy to read like a book.

But now she would change. She had already changed once again after that day Sasuke had announced his engagement.

The pain from him breaking her heart was slowly dissolving, it but it would never completely fade.

She no longer felt sad. But she was boiling over with anger and hatred for her former child hood love. He had ruined her beyond repair and made her life a mess. Her heart was now twisted, bitter, black, hole in her chest.

But she had learned a valuable lesson. Sasuke had never and probably will never care for anyone. The man was unable to feel anything except anger and hatred. And now, she had become like him. That didn't bother as much as it should have. She was stronger, harder than him mentally not to mention she had an eerie sense of calmness.

Even if Sasuke had chosen her over Karin, Sakura knew she would be trapped in an unhappy, decaying marriage that would leave her extremely bitter. She was headstrong and it wasn't her nature to be Sasuke's ideal wife: an obedient woman who would do whatever he would say. The only exception was that, she had truly loved him with all heart and was willing to do pretty much anything for him. So, she would have reluctantly bowed down to him just to stay with him.

But that would no longer ever happen; she was saved for that possible event in the future. Because she no longer felt anything for him anymore, except for dull regret, blinding anger, and numbing hatred.

She didn't really have any regrets, except that she lost whatever friendships, connections, and bonds she had with any friends. She had lost contact with all of them, they had stopped visiting her a long time back and she certainly didn't feel like calling or visiting them. She was quite sure they didn't want to do anything with her anymore and held remorse and guilt for her. She had learned they weren't true friends over these past months, only fair weather friends. And she didn't need any friends, if they were to abandon here and shun her when she had hit rock bottom and didn't truly attempt to help her.

Her mind finally came back to reality when wind gently tickled her pink hair. It was time to do what she had come for, which was not going memory lane. She balled her hands into fists and her knees slightly bent as she began to channel chakra to her fists, ready to punch the living daylight out of anything.

It was time to train for the ANBU exam. The ANBU exam was no doubt mercilessly difficult, only the best could get in. ANBU stood for Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai, the Special Assassination and Tactical Squad. There was no pity. You absolutely had to be unrivaled and basically had to ace the test if you wanted to get in. You had to be strong; both mentally and physically, ready to endure anything. Not to mention, Ibiki Morino, the crazy examiner from the chunin exam is the head of ANBU and is also the main judge along with some other spectators who are also from ANBU squads of the exam. Sakura couldn't be a pansy, if she wanted to get in. She needed to train.

She began to throw punches and kicks channeled with chakra at a wooden dummy. She soon built up her chakra and released it, destroying the dummy. Dirt sprayed everywhere as the earth shook, and a crevasse began to appear in the ground. Not bad. But the destruction was just starting. This was nothing. With out blinking an eye, she turned the trees around her into rubble.

The cloudless blue sky began to turn an inky black, and soon dawn came. Days began to turn into nights. As weeks turned into a month or two.

She didn't stop to eat or drink, her limbs only repeated the same moves over again and again in an endless pattern, only switching stances to change exercises and attacks. Blood was smeared all over her and freely flowing and she was covered in sweat.

With a grim determination, her teeth were gritted and her eyes were passive as she tore down the training grounds apart. Her strength this time was clearly fueled with anger. And with each move, her anger began to diminish. But she would not stop until she reached her goal. She wouldn't fail this time, no matter what.

* * *

**PLAYLIST:**

The kill – 30 Seconds to Mars

In the end – Linkin Park

I don't love you – My Chemical Romance

The Attack – 30 seconds to mars

Just like you – Three Days Grace

And pretty much anything else that's whiny, emo, rock, loud, and has a ton of screaming…

**Author's note:**

I know many of you want to throttle me and strangle me and etc. I haven't updated in some time. But this time, it actually wasn't my fault. I'm on vacation and was prepared to be relaxed and to work some more on my stories since I didn't get much time to focus on most of them this year. Except, my laptop broke down on me exactly the way it did last year and it's eerie. My hard drive was overloaded and so my laptop broke just like it did last year. I had to call dell and this time I had to send my laptop back and since apparently there wasn't anything they could do for it and they offered to send me a new one in return. But what I didn't know that it would take three extremely long weeks for my new laptop to come. Not to mention, I had to retrieve the memory from the hard drive of my old computer so I could transfer all my data to my new laptop. Finally, one of my buddies who's a computer whiz managed to do that and so now I finally have everything: My new laptop, (which is by the way, extremely nice, loaded with the latest version of Corel paint shop pro photo XI, a DVD player/burner, and brand new. My old laptop was falling apart and extremely dirty.), the data from my old laptop including all the latest chapters for most of my stories, and inspiration, which I really needed.

This story was just a minor side idea that got stuck in my head, while my laptop was broken and I had no way to type something up or use the internet. It bothered me so much, that I started writing it in a notebook and finally typed it up. Here's the result: A sad, tragic story focused on some of the not so pleasant aspects of reality and life such as rejecting, being shunned, being not loved, surrendering to your demons and etc, based on the years I lived in a hellish town, labeled as a freak and an monster, the rejection I received from a person I had truly loved at the same time and everything seemed to just crumble.

This story will be short and sweet, straight to the point mostly, just a small side project. It WILL be done by the end of August or September.


	2. Hate

_Infatuation, chapter 2_

_You pull me down  
And you crucify my name  
You make me insane  
It's broken now  
Don't ever look my way  
Don't even think I'm playin'  
'Cause I fucking hate you  
You're such a liar_

_

* * *

_

"Come join us!" slurred, Genji, one of the new ANBU recruits. He was obviously tipsy; his ninja headband askew as he wrapped an arm around a woman, who was one of the ANBU recruits and in his other hand, there was a glass of sake.

It was the celebration party for all the shinobis who were the new ANBU recruits, the candidates that had passed the exam. Music was blasting loudly, while people sang drunkenly along, plates and plates of expensive food and sake were ornately arranged on tables or passed around by waiters, twinkling white lights hung everywhere, and of course people were hooking up.

Sakura smiled thinly. "Not right now. Maybe late." She told him coolly.

He stared at her blankly before belching. "Party pooper." He muttered.

She ignored him and walked away. She wasn't much for parties. A wave of the cool night breeze raftered past her. Six months had passed by since that faithful day. She had trained almost ever day and night, perfecting her chakra control even more and making her techniques and attacks flawless. She had not asked anyone for help or to train her for the exam. She had wanted to train herself. She no longer wanted anyone's help for anything. She had not told anyone about entering the exam, not that anyone truly cared. The village began to forget about her as she spent most of her days training in the forest.

Much had changed too. Sakura had turned over to a new leaf. While inhabiting the forest, she had apprehended what it truly meant to survive, learning new procedures and methods of how to live in difficult situations. She ate ant eggs, which were a good source of protein or hunted for food and drank the icy cold water of the river. In the forest, she was at her best, at peace. The issue of Sasuke rarely bugged her, but sometimes she felt a slight tug at her heart.

She had also finally mastered rule number twenty-three in the handbook: _A shinobi must never show his/her emotions. _She was never proficient about that rule. No matter how she had tried in the past, she could never fully hide her emotions. She had always been a fervent person in the past, always voicing her options. She had believed in justice always. However, not anymore. There was no thing such as "Justice" in this world.

She had added new techniques and made slight changes on her attacks, adding ideas she had gotten from former opponents and friends fighting styles such as Kabuto, Sasori, Naruto, Lee and Tsunade.

She had lost about forty to fifty pounds while living in the forest with out proper food, going from the already skinny hundred pounds she was to an even deadlier weight of fifty to sixty pounds. There was almost no fat on her body: only muscle, skin, and bone. She had lost the baby fat on her face she had before that had mad her look younger. Her face was thinner now and more angular, her cheekbones had hollowed out and were more prominent now and her hair was longer now, but she was more beautiful than ever.

Soon, it came time for the ANBU exam. She was confident that she would do well. Many of the participants and spectators were appalled to see her: the former medical Nin who had become ill at the news of her love getting married. But she refused to take notice of the snide remarks and dirty looks she was receiving. She would soon wipe off those smug grins off their face.

The ANBU exam was similar to the chuunin exam, but much more difficult and made the mind and body easily tired. First, all participants had to go through an interrogation: series of attacks and questions aimed to take a blow at the mind by the one and only Ibiki Morino. Many candidates had succumbed. Ibiki was harsh and forceful, his interrogations were always psychologically damaging and the victims usually ended up being mentally scared. But Sakura was ready. Her mind had gone through much more than the average shinobi.

She was helplessly bound to the cold cement wall of the small cell by a jutsu, unable to escape as Ibiki mercilessly pricked and probed her mind, asking many personal questions, which she was forced to ask truthfully.

"Are you willing to die for Konoha? Willing to sacrifice your pretty little pink head and everything, you have for your village no matter what? Even if the enemy holds hostage the person most precious to you in return for a trade of the village's most forbidden secrets, are you willing to let that person go or die even in the direst situations where they cannot be rescued for the sake of Konoha?" He had sneered at her.

Sakura hadn't even bothered to blink an eye. "Yes. I am willing to sacrifice anything for the sake of the village." How could she be willing to sacrifice everything for the village she now despised and hated? The answer was that she had nothing left. She had nothing else to live for.

The interrogation had seemed to go on forever. But she had held her sanity and her cool the whole time. She had felt no pain, nothing even when he ruthlessly teased and questioned her about Sasuke.

She had passed so far. She would never forget the looks on all of the candidates for the exam when she had stepped out of the interrogation room, unscathed and unfazed. Jaws had dropped, eyebrows cocked, and everyone had scowled at her. She smirked at the memory of it.

Then there was the second part of the exam, which was that all the participants were trapped in a training ground for an exam similar to the forest of death, where the chuunin exam took place. But this forest was much more advanced, deadly, and menacing with plenty more of hidden traps, dangerous criminals on death row which they would have to kill to get by, out of control wild animals and bugs, poisonous plants, genjutsus, etc. But this time the main objective was changed. Usually, every year, all the candidates would be separated into teams and be given a kage bushin of the current hokage and the main object would to protect and get the kage bushin of the hokage out of the forest safety and to make sure that the other teams hokage were assassinated. Nevertheless, this year instead, there were no teams and someone close to each candidate such as a wife, father, mother, or friend would be kidnapped and be hidden and held hostage in the forest. The fundamental mission would be to discover whom her hostage was and find out where her hostage would be and come up with a strategy to secure him/her and exit the forest safety with out being succumbed to any traps, genjutsus, or enemies.

Sakura would have preferred last year's version of the second part of the ANBU exam. But there was one pro about this year's exam: she would be by herself and she liked it that way. She no longer needed meddling teammates to get in the way. But of course, she would have to be with the hostage, which would probably be a close friend most of the time, protecting him/her.

The second exam began. Hearts were racing and time was already staring to run out. But she was still undaunted. She had come up with a possible list of hostages, ruling out a possible amount of people. Some of the disadvantages were that the candidates could not be told who their hostages were and that no candidate could bring water or food with them; they would have to find food and water in the forest, which had no proper source of water. The food/water problem wasn't that problematic because she had already lived in a forest with out proper food and water but she could only guess who her hostage was. If she departed from the forest with the wrong hostage, she would automatically lose.

She had been abiding that Naruto was her hostage. After hiding where her hostage was hidden with much pain, to her greatest astonishment, she had discovered her hostage to be the one and only Hinata Hyuuga. It didn't bother her as much as she thought it would, she now would have preferred the quiet, shy, Hyuuga over the blustering, noisy, clumsy Naruto. She didn't quite despise Hinata as much as her other friends, besides she had never been too close with her. But she couldn't quite help having a slight feeling of envy of the Hyuuga, who was now married to Naruto.

The whole mission went quite smooth and they exited the forest with out much trouble, Hinata didn't speak much and obeyed Sakura. Sakura had a sneaking suspicion that she was scared of her. But it wasn't a bad thing. The only tiny spot of trouble, she had encountered were members of an ANBU squad. She had completely forgotten would also be ANBU in the forest as a test if she could match up with the skills of those in the elite squads of the special Assassination and tactical division. She had been cornered, but made Hinata stay back and quickly got out of the sticky situation. Besides that, she easily countered complicated genjutsus, removed seals, disarming booby traps, defeating dangerous animals and insects and even the exact same copy of herself that had showed up after she had removed a seal to get out of the forest.

There had only been a handful of people that had gotten through the forest in time. The spectators were surprised, expecting an even smaller amount of people, but preceded on to the next and final part of the exam, which consisted of a bunch of fights of randomly picked candidates against each other. Sakura had won each fight within seconds, showing off her newly honed skills and attacks. Attacks and Jutsus of a former enemy, Kabuto Yakushi, which she had painfully managed to learn in the past months, his techniques such as the Temple of Nirvana, which was a clever jutsu that is able to put the enemy easily to sleep with out using much chakra, were particularly helpful during the exam. Sakura had learned much about Kabuto's attacks and techniques while fighting him and while looking him up in bingo books, noting his remarkable advanced healing abilities. She had respected him immensely before knowing what he really was; a sadistic and twisted animal that wasn't quite human obsessed in a crazy way with his master, Orochimaru. She couldn't help but feel a slight feeling of sympathy when Naruto had killed him. It was shame how someone so intelligent with some much potential was wasted. She had a feeling if Kabuto wasn't associated with Orochimaru, they would have gotten along quite well.

She couldn't help but having a shit-eating grin spreading on her face, getting wider each moment when she was told that she had passed. The spectators told her that she did excellent in the exam and would not doubt have a future in ANBU. It had been one of the happiest moments in her life in months. She had finally accomplished one of her goals. She hadn't failed.

Here, she was a month later at the celebration party for those who had passed the examination. Standing under the "WELCOME TO ANBU!" banner, Sakura felt as if she for once she was in control. Her hair was long and gave off an icy shine. She was a wearing an expensive white three-layer halter neck cocktail organza dress with an A-line skirt, ruffled princess seams, a single ornate rose pinned on the bodice, and a flirty hem at the bottom, a dress would never be able to afford before, but since she was now part of ANBU, she would be receiving a much higher salary. Women were glaring enviously at her fantastic skinny figure and her gorgeous dress. Western dresses were new to fire country but were very big in fashion. Murmurs could be heard with each step she took. Men's eyes were raking over her figure shamelessly.

"Well, if it isn't Haruno?" She heard someone grunt.

She whirled around. It was Ibiki Morino in formal clothes, appropriately dressed for the event.

She bowed out of respect. "Morino-san."

He muttered something, before taking a gulp of his wine. "Congratulations. You were the kid, that passed the exam with the highest marks, no?" He rumbled.

"Hai."

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "You have a lot potential, kid. You were the only one to pass the interrogation without a look of horror afterwards. Keep up the good work and just might end up as Captain of a squad." He chucking, regarding her with pride and fondness before taking off.

This was good. Morino had taken a liking to her. This boosted her mood incredibly. The party didn't seem so bad anymore.

"Oi! Sakura-chan! Over here!" Naruto suddenly beckoned her over, shouting and waving, jumping up and down. Sakura resisted a groan. She really didn't want to talk to Naruto right now but she walked over to where he was.

"You look great!" he told her, surveying her up and down, leering at her. He was for once dressed formally in a dining suit.

She cocked a brow. "Have some shame. Aren't you married now, Naruto?" She tutted.

"Oh, yeah." He suddenly burst out as if he had forgotten he was married. He sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Hinata is awesome!" He boasted, while slightly blushing.

She faked a smile for him. She didn't have anything against the Hyuuga but she didn't her like her either. "So you better take care of her!"

"Yeah." His face abruptly lost the cheerfulness he had before, replaced with seriousness and concern. "But that's not why I'm here. Why didn't you tell me you took the ANBU exam? I could have helped you!" He asked her, looking clearly upset about.

She had been waiting for this. "I wanted to keep it a secret since I wanted to pass the exam by myself. I didn't want anyone's help." Sakura looked him straight in the eye when she told him.

He bristled. "If you told me that you didn't want any help, I wouldn't give you any. But why didn't you tell me? That's not the reason, is it?" He had questioned her.

Sakura looked around. Men and women were starting to gather around them, looking forward to hear a juicy piece of gossip. "Keep it down, Naruto! You're making a big deal for nothing!" She hissed at him.

He ignored her. "I would have kept it a secret!" He was ranting even louder and louder.

"AREN'T WE BEST FRIENDS AND TEAMMATES?" He roared.

Sakura didn't quite feel anything ever since she came back from the forest, but now her emotionless self was feeling a spark of anger. Naruto had ruined her night, not to mention many of the guests invited to the ANBU celebration were glaring and staring at her, pointing excitedly and whispering about her. Nevertheless, she didn't dare show it. Instead, she began to laugh. A confused expression washed over Naruto's face. It was cold, mirthless laughter.

"You, keep a secret? That could never happen. You always feel the need to let it out. The excitement is always too much for you." She regarded Naruto frigidly.

His eyes were burning embers. "This is about Sasuke! Isn't it?" Naruto demanded, pointing an accusing finger at her.

That spark of anger within her became a scorching, sizzling blaze, hidden in her emotionless composure. "Nice try. But he means nothing to me now. Why do you still believe I'm still hung-over Sasuke? Why is that you and almost this entire village still believe that source of all my problems is him! Do you still think I'm still that weak, pathetic girl who pines over a feeble boy, when I was twelve?" She managed to say smoothly, struggling to restrain her anger.

"Ah...Ur…Um…Urg!" He had been blustering. Naruto was at loss of words. He was speechless since he had never seen this new darker side of this strange new Sakura.

"Don't underestimate me." Her words icy, daring him to disobey her. Her eyes were small slits and were threatening, as those were her last words for to him before she stormed away from him. She had shown him her true fangs and it was too late, to withdraw them.

After, she had made sure the distance between her and Naruto were far enough, she decided relax. But the conversation with Naruto had truly disheartened her. She had almost everything now: Money, a well-paid job, and a great body. But even with a killer body and a dress, she was still feeling as if something was missing, her heart was still a black, twisted, empty hole. She felt numb. It was a welcoming feeling. Not being able to feel anything. The pain was gone. There was no more anger, sadness, happiness. Nothing. It was the way she wanted to keep things. She didn't have to notice or care about how life was becoming so dull, dwindling day after day, useless. There was nothing she had anymore to look up too.

There was no way she could continue living the life she had been living before. She needed to be away from her-so-called "friends" and almost everyone else in the village. They made her feel sick all over again. She hadn't been too enthusiastic to join ANBU at first, considering the fact that ANBU was a specialized unit that essentially gave their heart and soul to the village, which she secretly disliked. The village had been the source of her woes, full of people that rejected her and shunned her. But her only other choices were to either leave the village, become a missing-nin or to commit suicide. Both, either way, would result in death. At the rate, she had been going at she would have acknowledged death with arms wide open. But, she began to realize, suicide was the easy way out which only cowards and fools took. It would have shown to Sasuke and her former friends, she had given up, she had surrendered and that she was weak, because she had succumbed to her demons.

So she vowed that she would live. She would live for the sake that she would show them, she was a survivor, a fighter, who was strong, who would never give up. This vow kept her living by the scruff of her neck since all of her hope had been diminished. She weighed the pros and cons of ANBU: ANBU recruits were usually always away on S-class missions so she would always have an excuse to not ever see or visit her former friends or any of other inhabitants of the village besides the other ANBU recruits. ANBU was to be her path and so it was. She had passed her exam and very soon, she would be assigned on a squad and be entrusted with a mission. And being emotionless as she was, she would be perfect for the job. And she would never really ever have to see the very people she had trusted that turned and stabbed her straight in the back.

She accepted an appetizer a waiter had offered her, nibbling on it furiously. Many people had approached her so far, mostly to congratulate her such as the elders of fire country's council, including shinobis, daimyos, spectators, from other hidden villages such as sand, tea, etc. But others like the noisy villagers and shinobis of Konoha were only looking to poke their noses in her business, wanting to know what she was doing now and how she was taking the news of Sasuke's engagement months later.

She bided good-bye to Gaara and his two siblings, Temari and Kankuro. A huge smirk began to make its way on her face after she recognized the two figures gracefully walking towards her. This was going to be highly entertaining.

"Well, well. Dear, look, who we have here." An annoyingly feminine drawled.

It was Karin. The past few months seemed to be a bit stressful on her. Her face was thinner and there were a few stress fines on her forehead. Nevertheless, she still was quite beautiful. Her black hair was lustrous, done in complicated twists and ringlets.

Her complexion was fair and her perfect figure was still the same. She was wearing a blood-red western style evening couture layered gown made of brocade, chiffon, and silk with a sweet heart neckline dipping low, to show hefty amount of cleavage. The side slits of the gown flashed a generous amount of fair skin. The gown made Karin look like a rich prostitute. Around her shoulders was a thin white woven shawl with the Uchiha clan symbol on the back of it. On her ears, hung large delicate but heavy looking gold earrings, with dripping chains and a huge vintage ornate cabochon. Nestled in the hollow of her neck, was an extremely large ruby the size of a goose egg threaded on a thick gold chain. One arm was around Sasuke's arm. He looked good too, in a black western tuxedo.

_Of course, Sasuke wouldn't let his future wife go out anywhere without wearing his clan's symbol,_ Sakura thought.

"Karin and Sasuke. How are you? Things seem to be going well for you." She greeted them. Her composure was flawless and emotionless.

At that moment, Karin seemed to stop ogling at her future husband and actually took the time to stare at Sakura. She had expected to see, a dirty sick, broken, sobbing, terrible-looking Sakura, only to find a very polished, looking-fine, doing better than ever Sakura, who didn't even spare Sasuke a glance. Her face betrayed shock, her jaw dropped and her eyes showed bewilderment. Even Sasuke looked extremely puzzled. An eyebrow arched high as he looked questioningly at her.

"Anything wrong?" asked Sakura innocently. The expressions on their faces were priceless when they had seen her.

Karin had been speechless, clutching the large goose-egg sized ruby around her neck tightly. "So, who did you bribe to get in ANBU, eh?" she spat, since there wasn't really anything else she could criticize about Sakura. "There's no way you could have gotten in by yourself. You're too weak. Useless."

"I see that you aren't taking to well to your new stay-at-home wife position? Taking your anger out on others?" Sakura asked mockingly, her voice frosty. She usually didn't have an ear for gossip, but this juicy tidbit had interested her very much, that Sasuke had forced his wife to resign her shinobi status and become a stay-at-home wife instead.

Sasuke's face was stoic as usual. "Sakura…" But a hint of annoyance in his voice, betrayed his true emotions. "Are you so desperate that you have to resort to useless pieces of gossip? Stop playing this game. You are acting very childish." Yet, he didn't deny the accusations, making Sakura believe they were true.

She ignored him. "But what you can expect? Sasuke's very possessive about everything he owns. He'll have you serve your main purpose soon, a baby-making machine, popping out kids to revive his beloved Uchiha clan. However, I can't help feel sorry that you're going to be marrying him soon. How do you live with an emotionless bastard him, I can't help but wonder? He can't feel for anyone or anything. In addition, he never will. He has no heart, ever since the day his brother murdered the entire Uchiha clan. Thank you from saving me the fate from marrying him." She continued in an emotionless, monotone voice.

Karen's face blew up like balloon in anger. Her fists were clenched. Sasuke lost his nerve. That had been the last strike. Sakura knew that you just didn't insult the Uchiha clan in front of him. It was his sore point.

His handsome face was twisted in an ugly, feral snarl. "What…did…you…just…say?" he growled. "I _dare _you to say it again, bitch." He warned, regarding her savagely.

"Let's just go." Karin squeaked tugging on Sasuke's sleeve. He glared at Sakura, with an animalistic look was on his face, for a couple of minutes before storming off with Karin.

Sakura sniggered. She never expected those rumors to be true. She had keenly heard two old women gossiping on the way to the party, one woman whispering that Sasuke had told his wife to revoke her Shinobi status and become a stay-at-home-wife or he would break off the marriage. Apparently, he didn't want her working or risking her life until an "heir was produced" and Karen was extremely upset about this arrangement.

Sasuke had killed his brother a couple years ago, showing the other surviving Uchiha who had slaughtered the entire clan except them, who was truly the stronger Uchiha heir. Sasuke had won in the end, by transferring himself to a different dimension and turning around the mangekyou sharingan attack, sending his brother to the hell Itachi had created: Tsukuyomi, with his sharingan eyes. After letting Itachi suffer in the world he had created, Sasuke ended it all by killing his brother with a chidori infused with his sword, straight through Itachi's heart.

It only seem normal, Sasuke would immediately try to accomplish the second part of his goal, which was to revive the clan after entering Konoha. Sakura had been waiting for him to make his move.

_Sounds like that two-faced bastard finally showed his true colors. _

At that thought, she slightly smiled, as she stared up into the indigo night, the stars glistening back at her. It had gone better than she had expected.

But the faint smile slid off her face like mud as she saw who was heading towards her.

"Kakashi." She greeted him, with a fake smile plastered on her face as if they were old friends, dropping the honorifics.

But he didn't seem to be in the mood for pleasantries. He had looked quite upset; his visible left eye was narrowed in anger and was flashing. He was tense and his fists were clenched. He wasn't even dressed for the party, clad in his usual jounin uniform and vest.

"Why didn't you tell me that you were going to take the ANBU exam?" His voice was shaking in anger, and his eyes seemed to be furious.

She had never seen her sensei like this but she was prepared. She had already enough so far and was prepared to make this extremely awkward conversation quick. "A little late on news, no? It is simply because I didn't want your help."

He raised an eyebrow. "Surely you could have told me. If you didn't want help, I won't offer it to you. I wouldn't have told anyone. I'm not Naruto, that blabbering big mouth."

"Then let's just cut straight to the point, shall we? You never cared about me. From the day, Team 7 first met, you always had and always will care about Sasuke and Naruto more. I was always the useless, weak girl that could never compare to the Uchiha clan heir survivor and Kyuubi's container. You never focused your attention or energies on me. You always made me feel that excessively: Useless and weak, good for nothing. Even after I became Tsunade's apprentice, you still ignored me. I didn't want anyone's help for the exam. I wanted to pass by myself with no help from anyone, which I did to show you including many other people, that I'm much stronger than most people could ever be. Don't even dare to win me back now. It's too late. You will never care for me. I was slightly convinced that you cared for me on that day you first came to visit me after Sasuke's engagement but you left when I asked you instead of staying even though I asked you to leave. You gave up. I was always too complicated for you. You didn't want to immerse yourself with the problems of a teenage girl. You already had on your plate. One try was good enough. If I didn't want anything, even though you knew I was dying for help and had hit rock bottom, it would be best to leave me that way, right?" It felt good to be yelling at him like that, her voice piercing and with no feelings, to be releasing the pent-up anger and feelings about how he had treated her in the past.

Kakashi flinched. His face was a mix of sadness, confusion, and piety. "It's…not…what you think. It's not… you." He struggled to say.

Sakura felt a flare of anger. She didn't need anyone's piety anymore. "Oh, I know it's exactly what I think. Don't deny it, Kakashi. It's true." She said coldly.

Kakashi winced. He disliked it when she called him just "Kakashi" with out the "sensei". It was as if she didn't know him. Not to mention, her voice was artic cold.

"You don't understand. Being part of ANBU is dangerous. You're never the same afterwards. It takes a part of your soul. They do imaginable things to you, to test your loyalty even after the exam. They make you go through training so that you become emotionless and are able to kill swiftly and quietly. They do anything to their enemies to get what they want. You become an emotionless killing machine. You start to go insane." He whispered. His visible black eye was strained, wide and fearful. His hands were shaking.

"ANBU isn't for you. You aren't emotionally and mentally ready. Moreover, you never will be. You are not ready to kill and take lives as many as they do, women, children, men and the elderly, with out feeling anything. You are too soft, merciful, and innocent. They will turn to into a monster, making you crave bloodshed." He continued to say, his voice was ghostly.

Sakura wasn't a bit scared, in fact she was quite amused. "I'm quite sure, I can handle it. I passed the exam, did I not? Very funny. Two can play at the game, you know." She said dryly.

The look of Kakashi's face reminded Sakura of a lost and broken man. He seemed haggard and rugged. "Please believe me, Sakura. I was once part of an ANBU squad. I was never the same afterwards. Their practices are unmentionably cruel." He pleaded her. He cornered her and he had placed a large calloused hand on her thin shoulder. There seemed to be no one around them, all the guests invited to the party had seemed to disappear.

"ANBU isn't for those who are weak at heart, gentle at nature. ANBU will corrupt you and break you." He continued to say.

Suddenly, any sign of mirth or amusement on her face disappeared and her face became cloudy. "Are you still saying I am weak… even after passing the exam? Are you saying I'm incapable of killing anyone?

He ignored her. "… But you are pure of heart, no matter how much you deny it. This profession, ANBU is not for you." He repeated.

She gritted her teeth. "I've changed in ways you could never imagine in these past few months. I'm anything but "pure at heart." She threw back her head and let out a high-pitched laugh.

"I'm stronger than ever. I'm prepared and ready for ANBU than more anything in my life. I'm not the weak, little, pathetic girl anymore. That part of me is long gone. I am no longer merciful, innocent, nor soft hearted. I think the exam was quite enough. I was forced to watch a genjutsu where my parents had their throats slit in front of me by an enemy nin on a former mission who wanted revenge, as they were screaming for me to run as their blood began to flow, their guttered screams and cries rung in the air. They were defenseless. I remembered trying to heal them but the blood flow had been immerse and it was already too late." Her green orb glittered and had a crazed look in them.

"That was one of my worst fears in my life, my parents getting killed in front of me. But that fear no longer brings horror to my heart. As you already know, my father left my mother and me, when I was five, only a small child. He was tired of taking care of a small toddler and his wife and having an ordinary job as a baker. He wanted to move on to better and bigger things. I have never seen him ever after he left. I had only had my old, dear mother, who was a stay-at-home mom who never wanted me to become a ninja. But I always loved her. Yet, she left this world, dying of an incurable disease, a year before Sasuke came back the village. So, that fear no longer applied to me. I had nothing to fear since my parents did not die that way. But that was something no ordinary shinobi could endure watching. I was also forced to watch many other painful memories such as when my mother died, etc. I'm entirely sure I can endure whatever gruesome tasks they will force me to do if I could watch memories and genjutsus such as my parents being grisly murdered before me." She continued to say.

Kakashi just stared at her in disbelief and shook his head. "… That's still not enough." He said softly, remembering the memory when he had woke up that faithful morning to find that his father had hanged himself in kitchen. He would never forget that day until I die.

"That's not enough for you, isn't it? As for killing someone…." She trailed off.

Suddenly, as a gust of wind passed by them, Kakashi felt a cold sharp item against his jugular vein. It was a kunai. He had been caught off guard. His heartbeat skyrocketed. He felt her petite frame pressed against his back.

"I could kill you right now with no hesitation." She said stoically, her hot breath ticking his very vulnerable neck, as she pressed the cold, sharp, metal weapon even harder against the vein.

Kakashi had been expecting some resistance but not this quite exactly.

* * *

**PLAYLIST**

**"I Fucking Hate You" – Godsmack**

**"Love to Hate" – Erasure**

**"Breathe" – Breaking Benjamin**

**"Aesthetics of Hate" – Machine Head**

**"I Stand Alone" – Godsmack**

**"What Went Wrong/You Fucked Up My Life" – Blink 182**

**"Numb" – Linkin Park**

**"Kill You" – Eminem**


	3. Hell, Morals, & Humanity

_**Infaution, Chapter 3**_

_"Hell is a place, a time, a consciousness,  
in which there is no love." – Richard Bach_

_"Hell is a thing like doubt.  
Hell is a thing like jealousy._

_Hell is an animal like a panther.  
Hell is an animal like a tiger._

_Hell is a man like the poorest beggar.  
Hell is a man like the fiercest brute._

_Hell is a road paved with good intentions.  
Hell is a road that compels us to think of perfection."_

_- Sri Chimony_

* * *

"I could kill you right now with no hesitation." She said stoically, her hot breath ticking his very vulnerable neck, as she pressed the cold, sharp, metal weapon even harder against the vein. 

Kakashi had been expecting some resistance but not this quite exactly.

Nevertheless, he stayed calm. He had been quite ruffled but of course, he would not show it. As his single pitch-black eye peered at his former student, he immediately knew she had changed. The familiar round, slightly chubby, childlike yet always concerned face inset with a cute button nose and glowing viridian eyes, which he knew very well had disappeared. In its place was a pale, weary, thin, angular, hollowed face that was yet also beautiful with sharp, well-defined check bones, her eyes were dull jade-colored chunks of ice, blank, impassive, registering no recognition staring right back at him.

There were very many words he could have said. Yet the wrong ones escaped from his mouth. "Sakura. You don't know what you're doing. Go home for the night. You're tired." He told her lightly, resisting a shudder while staring straight back at those now very eerie eyes of hers.

Her reply was to draw a thin cut over his jugular vein, caressing his skin lightly with the sharp blade, which was glinting in the moon light, reflecting her emotion void face.

"Not very smart choice of words, no, Kakashi?"

Indeed. He abstained from releasing a wince and remained silent, trying to stare down his former pink-haired student.

She defiantly stared him back down with those unfamiliar freaky eyes. Sakura dug the kunai deeper in the tender skin of his vein and a flow of blood was starting to ooze its way through the wound.

"Shall I dig a little deeper, Kakashi?" She inquired. She wanted him to defy her, she wanted him to fight her, she wanted to badly beat her and show him that she wasn't the runt little weakling she was before.

"That's enough." He raised his hands up, surrendering. "What do want me to do?" He asked her tiredly, his single black eye was red and bloodshot.

She ignored him. "Have you seen what I have become now? Do understand the animal I have become? In addition, it's your fault. You gave up; you left me to rot that day. You made no true effort to save me. You ignored me. You left me for the dead." She said softly, her harsh voice against the shell of his ear, her words poison to his heart.

_You left me for the dead. _Those words rang repeatedly in his head. "I'm not Sasuke, Sakura. I didn't break your heart." His voice was faint and hoarse.

"A lie. You're just as responsible as he is. You didn't truly try to help me when I was at rock bottom. You walked away." She hissed, as the blood trickled down his neck faster.

Touché. Kakashi remained silent, carrying the burden of remorse and regret in his heart.

"Admit it. Your heart now possesses fear and disgust for me now, besides the general dislike you had for me before. You fear me. " She rasped, glee in her usually emotionless dull jade orbs. Victory. His eye was like an open book, regret oozed off his aura.

"You are saved for now, Kakashi. But if you ever underestimate me again, cross me, or look down upon me again…" She continued.

"You shall find yourself doomed to a fate worst than death." Moreover, with that, she disappeared with a puff of smoke.

A rush of wind swept along, ruffling Kakashi's unruly silver hair. She turning into him. She was turning into a more spiteful, bitter, angry, version of him. For first time in an ages, the last time since he felt like this was when Sasuke left the village and team seven had changed forever, the famous copy-nin was feeling helpless and hopeless like a child, who couldn't do anything, the feelings were very similar to that night.

Sakura reappeared at the party. She pondered if her exit was a little too dramatic. Still she was sure that she had dealt Kakashi properly. Her lesson probably taught him never to mess with her ever again. As she greeted and thanked many more unfamiliar residents and shinobis of other countries, the night began to pass quickly. There wasn't anything much in for her at this party now. Her work was done. She had humiliated Sasuke and taught Kakashi a lesson she was sure he wouldn't forget any time soon. As she began somehow make out the silhouettes in the pitch-black night, were men and women hooking up and after she stumbled upon a couple in a rendezvous, limbs entangled in a position that would made the old Sakura blush, she assured it was time to leave.

She politely bided her good-byes and then quickly left. As she leaped from rooftop to rooftop, she paused, and could not help but admire the night. It was a beautiful, crisp, cool, fall night, pitch black, with tiny stars twinkling in the vast space of the night like diamonds.

"Beautiful night, eh, Ugly?"

She pirouetted around.

"Sai." Her face showed no reaction or surprise.

There he was standing on the slanted rooftop, dressed simply in the outfit he always wore: the quarter sleeve black zip-up jacket that stopped before his upper abdominal muscles, showing off this toned six-pack and belly button, with the long curved kantana strapped to his back. The black baggy pants he wore that hung low on his hips, showing a hint of pelvic bone.

Sai had been unofficially added to Team Four, making it a five men cell after the grass country incident. She hated to admit it but he had been highly helpful during the hunting Itachi and retrieving Sasuke mission. He had saved their necks numerous times during the mission. It had been annoying as hell being near him though.

Sakura had never been a big fan of Sai. Naruto might have been "friends" with him. But Sakura didn't really like him, not even after hearing his sob-story life about how he had been an orphan and how he had been in root, going through horrible producers to suppress his emotions and how his "brother", the only source of happiness in his life passed away. What really angered her about Sai was that he always put Sasuke down and

His dismissal attitude towards him, categorizing him as "Worthless Traitor" simply because he left the village, when he did not even truly know Sasuke. Not to mention the fact that he was always bugging her and calling her "ugly".

Sakura appraised him up down. Sai was known in Konoha, for his good looks similar to Sasuke's and his acquaintanceship with Naruto. A possible bachelor to the women and girls of Konoha when he was not being an emotionless son of a bitch with a terrible potty mouth. He was thought to be a slightly watered down version of Sasuke with a bad mouth. Nevertheless, at a closer view, she noticed that Sai physique was different from Sasuke's build. His eyes were more slanted than Sasuke's eyes, his nose was more prominent, longer, smaller than Sasuke's nose, his cheekbones more prominent than Sasuke's cheekbones, and Sasuke had more of square jaw. Her conclusion was that Sai's features were more feminine than Sasuke's features. Everything about him, the way he moved reminded her of a graceful, deadly, cat.

"What do you want?" She finally asked him.

He ignored her. "Admiring my fine body, eh, Ugly? Can't keep your eyes off me since no man in their right mind will ever go near you?" He taunted her, shooting her a fake a smile.

"Shut up and get to the point. Why the hell are you here?" Her cloudy green eyes were fearless and were fixed on him. It was clear she was in her don't-mess-with-me-I-don't-have-time-for-this-bullshit mood.

"A little bitchy today, aren't we, Ugly? I heard you screaming your head off at dickless wonder at the party. I am sure everyone within a hundred miles of here heard you. It seems like you blew off some major steam there. Not to mention, he was upset afterwards too. What did you do this time?"

"Don't stick your blow-up head in places where it doesn't belong." Her voice was innocent, but Sai knew the true meaning of her words: Don't mess with me.

"Oh, don't tell me the true reason for your bad mood is because you're still hung over traitor." He insinuated, casually twirling a kunai on his finger.

"I thought you were smarter than that. That worthless Uchiha bastard means nothing to me anymore. Is that too hard to believe?"

Sai was surprised but he didn't show it. "Wow. You actually called traitor a "bastard." Then it must be true you changed from psycho, ugly, traitor-obsessed fan girl who wouldn't allow a single person to bad mouth him to a still psycho, bitter, jealous, ex-fan girl."

Sakura let out a bitter laugh. "Oh, at least I'm not known as "The Sasuke Clone" around Konoha behind my back."

She could have sworn he slightly winced. Point one for her.

"Harsh." He said.

"But true." She reprimanded him.

"Sometimes, the truth isn't the best to say. Sometimes, the truth is better kept away inside, shut away."

"No. The truth is always best no matter what."

"Always honest, eh, ugly? Goody-two-shoes?" Sai cocked his head.

"No one is always truly honest. We all lie. Anyways, who are you calling goody-two-shoes? Let me assure you, I am anything but a goody-two-shoe." She drawled.

"We'll see about that, ugly."

Then there was pause before Sai asked, "Am I really known as the clone of traitor?"

"Yeah. That's the nickname the women and girls of Konoha give you and that's the only reason why they want to do you, because you look like him, you're the next best thing and they know they'll never have him. However, you know, you don't really look alike to Sasuke. Your facial characteristics are different." Sakura found herself saying, idly curling a single lock of pink hair.

"Huh." He grunted.

Then there was silence.

"It's a beautiful night, isn't it?" He gestured towards the endless misty opaque night that was a beautiful cobalt blue and the stars were twinkling points of light. The moon was full and large, a lovely orange color, glowing and lighting the night with its majestic splendor. A sheath of moonlight was overhead of them.

It seemed that the moon was so close. Sakura could see every crack on it and every crater on it. It was amazing. "Indeed." She muttered as they both peered at the night in wonder.

Finally, Sakura said, "I don't have all night to keep you entertained, Sai. I have work tomorrow.

"Then you should have left earlier, Ugly." Sai told her flatly.

She rolled her eyes. "I couldn't because you suddenly came behind me and kept on blabbering"

"Admit it, hag. You didn't want to leave. You were too busy ogling at my physique."

"You wish." She got up, gracefully gathering her gown, ready to go home.

Surprisingly, as she was about to leap to the next rooftop, Sai stopped her.

"Hey, Ugly." He called

"What?" She snapped.

"Good work getting into ANBU even though I don't know how you did it or who you bribed." He nodded his head.

She smirked as she delicately landed to the next rooftop, quickly increasing her pace home.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three months had passed since the ANBU celebration. Life seemed to go on. Sakura was assigned to a squad after the celebration and immediately stood up out. She excelled at her missions, which she completed quickly without any complications arising. The missions were simple since she just joined. She was soon transferred from squad to squad. She was a rising star. She was the favorite of the captions and Ibiki favored her. She was always picked as a first choice candidate on any mission She was envied.

However, she could not escape the bitterness and jealously of her fellow ANBU members. They excluded her when they were on missions and made a point to ignore her. She was known as the "Icy, stuck-up, frigid bitch."

Not that she cared. She was rising. Her fame was arising. She was becoming a legend.

She was finally assigned to Root, the ANBU department that trained their squad members to be emotionless which also had recruited Sai in the past. Even though Tsunade demanded Root to be disbanded after she learned of it's existence after Sasuke and the rest of the squad that was sent after him returned to the village, Root still existed and was run and controlled up some higher ups and the leader of ANBU, Ibiki Morino. Root was still used to run difficult missions that had a high risk of blood shed or death. Only the crème of the crop from ANBU were sometimes recruited to Root.

To enter the department, Sakura was forced to endure methods of torture and take tests that included unthinkable acts methods. The tests were harder and more laborious than the ANBU exam. One of the worst exams to get into the department was when Sakura pitted against every other candidate in a fight of death, the last candidate standing would be the only one to get into Root.

She remembers quickly disemboweling the first candidate who had been pitted against her and then efficiently slicing off all the heads of three other candidates who charged right at her. The way their crimson blood showered her, sullying her. She had been covered in blood. She didn't feel anything, no fear, no regret, no sadness, no enjoyment. It simply had been a task, an obstacle that had been in the way that needed to be removed. She stank of it, the scarlet metallic fluid, forever damned as a killer from that day on ward.

Root had been impressed but had been uncertain about her loyalty. She had first received a couple of solo missions, which she easily completed and then a few missions with a squad.

She remembered what had happened on one of her first missions with a squad she had been assigned with; it had been a dark, stormy, day. An ominous sign. The mission had been to raid the home of a man, who was believed to be a corrupt former politician working for a new rising criminal organization, bent on taking the place of Akatsuki.

Sakura had been surprised about the house; it had been a small cramped, traditionally styled house similar to what the average citizen lives in. She had been expecting a large, grander house with ornate decorations and a beautiful garden, which politicians usually live in.

The squad immediately got to business, the captain had assigned each squad member, room in the small house and the rest of the members who would have not been assigned a room, was to check the small garden outside. They began to skillfully check every corner for any evidence proving the man was guilty of passing on information and money to the criminal organization. Evidence had been found and had been quickly sealed and kept safe for later. Sakura's room had been an almost bare, shabby, white washed room with only a few pieces of furniture in it. There had been no evidence. She was about to radio that the room was clean, when she had sensed there was a presence. It had been a very weak presence with no chakra. She checked the first place that came in mind, under the bed and she had found him. It was the presence of a very old man, toothless, filthy, wrinkled who looked thin and starved. He looked exactly like the picture of the man who was their target. He cowered immediately when he saw her. "Thank god you're here. Please…help me." He had croaked, reaching out towards her. She had stared at him with a mix of disgust and confusion. "No one's been here in months except me. The house is deserted. I haven't heard from my son in weeks." He continued to rasp.

After slapping his hand away, Sakura spoke quietly into the radio so the old man would not hear her. "I've found someone."

She immediately understood who the man was after he had narrated his tale. The man had been the father of the target. The target had deserted his house after he somehow had gotten a gist of that they were coming to raid his house in a desperate attempt to live, and he had left his father behind. The picture of the target's father had been much different, his father had been quite fat and seemed jolly. But weeks after being deserted and starving had probably changed him.

Her ears perked up immediately as she heard quiet footsteps behind her.

"Well, what do we have here?" Jiro snickered as he crouched besides her. He was one of the ANBU squad members. He was marasmus and plain. However, what he lacked in looks, he made up with brains. Genji was extremely intelligent, always sharp and alert. Nevertheless, he had a terrible personality and was extremely violent.

"Father of the suspect." Sakura said flatly.

"Our work is finished." One of the other ANBU squad members crooned.

"Oi, old man, where's your son?" Jiro spat at the old man, relishing his kunai. He was clearly going to enjoy torturing this man.

The old man shook in fear. "I don't know!" He cried. "What do you want with my son? What did he do to you?"

Jiro's pale, pasty and ugly features were twisted into a smug expression. "How sad. The man doesn't know the serious crime his son has committed."

"W-what are you talking about?" The old man asked Jiro in disbelief. "My son is a good boy who has changed his fate from rags to riches. He is a successful honest man." He said defensively. "You dare say that about my son! He is a good man." He repeated.

Jiro chortled. "Oh, old man, you are funny! Your son is anything but that. He's wanted for embezzlement, forgery, and for passing private information about fire country to criminal gangs. He is a greedy, cunning liar, thief, and manipulator. It's such a shame, the love for money led people to do anything." Jiro said, clearly thinking the opposite.

"You try to deny it. We had evidence." Jiro whistled. "You should have seen what the families he stole from are now reduced to. Most of them have nothing, are skeletons, they weep and beg for food, for a home, for some warmth. The innocent children, oh how they look! The broken, hard look of betrayal and sadness of being cheated of their homes, money, and innocence, is clear in their eyes. Some children are orphans, their homes and beloved villages and families burned to ashes by gangs. They still could have had their old lives if your son did not reveal information about them, which he had no business of knowing about, to the gangs. The widows, whose precious husbands were stolen from them early tragically and now have to work as prostitutes and whores to support themselves and the men who have lost everything including their families. The reason for all of their pain and suffering is your son. He is the reason why they live such a life now. Their hatred for your son who has made their lives hell is great. Oh how they would love to get their own hands on your son and tear and rip him apart into tiny pieces until there is nothing left of him. They would love for him to feel the most pain unimaginable." There was a crazed look in his Jiro's eyes, glittering, he was enjoying explaining the grisly details to the old man.

"N-no, my son would never do that." The old man grunted, his voice quavering. He had been clearly shaken by Jiro's words. His gnarled face was drained of all color and had been pale as milk.

"They are those who have to suffer as your son gets richer off the money that is rightfully theirs and while you got fatter eating food, doing nothing sitting on your ass, while they beg and have nothing." Jiro mocked the old man, poking a long, pale, bony finger into the old man's belly.

The look of pride and love for his son had now completely disappeared on the man's face, replaced with fear and disbelief. The smug smile that his old cracked droopy had somehow formed vanished, his jaw slack. His old wizened wrinkled characteristics now were knotted into an expression of a grimace, betrayal, anger, love, and sadness. His brown eyes that had been closed, and his lazy eye was now wide and alert, a pure of expression of shock, fear, and distress were shining in them.

"Believe me now?" Jiro questioned the man, a smug smirk plastered on his face.

The old man didn't respond.

"Now, tell me where your son! Now, you have nothing on your conscience knowing what he has done. He must pay for he has done." Jiro snapped, clearly getting down to business.

"I-I don't know where he is. I told you before." The old man was shaking.

"He doesn't know. I already asked him." Sakura quietly interrupted. Everyone in the room turned to stare at her.

Jiro for a fleeting second, lost control, his face knotted in a feral look and he clenched his kunai, ready to release his apparent anger at Sakura for interrupting.

Then his face was arranged in his usually, flat, expression look. He released his grip on his kunai.

"Then if what Sakura-san is saying is true, that means the old man is no longer usable." He muttered so the old man could not hear. He simpered, licking his lips.

"You know what that means for you, old man?" Jiro queried the old man, with a dangerous grin on his face.

The old man shook his head.

"Your son left here to escape us, but he left you to rot. He thought you were disposable. He didn't have enough room to take you with him. He thought in a desperate attempt, that they would mistake you for him. He left you here to die. He doesn't give a shit about you." Jiro whispered in the old man's ear and paused letting the meaning sink in.

"N-no. He would never abandon me, I'm his father." He quavered.

Laughter filled the room. It was harsh, jeering, laughter, which came from every ANBU squad member excluding Sakura, that was directed at the old man. They clearly had found his situation amusing.

"Then, where is he now? Your great beloved son? He certainly isn't going to show up here to save you from your ultimate fate of death." Jiro crowed, cornering the old man, intimating him with his tall, lanky frame.

"Please! No-no…. I don't want to die yet!" The old man cried, raising his weak, thin, arms in front of him in a protective gesture.

Jiro ignored him. "Oi, Sakura-san, since you found him first, why don't you do the honors, eh?" His eyes were dark and stormy, his face fixed in an expression of glee and excitement and his thin lips were stretched into a big, fat, triumphant smirk. This was his revenge on Sakura for interrupting him. It was obvious.

Sakura glared at the Jiro. There was no way she could escape out of this one. Every single ANBU squad member in the room, including the captain were fixed on her, watching her every move like a hawk and expecting her to do what she was told.

She didn't want to do this but it was obvious and she had no choice. "Of course." She smiled thinly at Jiro, flashing her small, white, sharp teeth dangerously at him.

The smirk he had previously before disappeared and he was now scowling darkly. Wordlessly, he threw a black, sharp, shiny dagger at her. Sakura caught it immediately with her natural ninja reflexes.

"Make it quick." The caption told her stiffly.

Sakura flexed her hand and grasped the dagger handle in her small hand. It was light and fit perfectly in her dainty hand. Perfect.

She stared at the old man, as he cowered below her. The look in his eyes she would never forget. The look and body language of pure fear, of someone who didn't die. It was wide and clear. The man was afraid of going where every human was destined to go one day or another. She didn't know what sins the man had committed in his life time, but it was coherent that the old man thought he was going to hell. She found that amusing and saddening at the sad time.

She stepped towards him, dagger in hand. He immediately grasped her ankle, in a last attempt. "Please have mercy on me, don't kill me. Don't kill me." He repeated again and again.

She ignored his pleas. "Good-bye." She told him tartly as she slit his throat, dark blood immediately falling and staining him. His eyes rolled over immediately and only the white of them were visible. "S-save my son." He gurgled, blood escaping his mouth, with a shaking hand, he grabbed her. "P-please. Onegai." Finally, he fell over and was dead, shrouded in his own blood, his hand still reaching towards Sakura.

The ANBU squad members immediately left the room now that the deed was done. It was a careless, simple, everyday task to them, killing someone, such as washing dishes.

"Let's go. Someone in the morning will clean up the mess." The caption said impatiently, gesturing towards the man before vanishing in a cloud of smoke.

Sakura didn't take a single look behind. She too, left the premises.

The next day, when the target's whereabouts were found, Sakura was selected him to finish off. After she had found the target hidden deep underground in an secret hotel. She had been disguised as an hotel servant and knocked on the door of the room of where he was staying in, after he had required for "room service."

The target was an average man, balding, with beady eyes, wearing a black western suit, had been seated on a chair.

"Good, you're finally here. Where's my breakfast?" He snapped at her, acknowledging her with his black beady eyes.

"Right here, sir." She pretender to cower, unveiling a platter filled with all sorts of breakfast assortments in front of him.

"Good. Now, where's my newspaper?" He glared at her. She handed him his newspaper.

After taking a bite of his rolled omelet, and flipping listlessly through his newspaper, he spoke to her. "That's my father." He tapped a large picture of an charred burned body in front of an roped off house. "Well, that was my father."

"Ah." Sakura looked at the picture. "The headline above it says he's dead. I'm sorry for your loss, sir." She said, her voice dripping with fake piety.

"No need to be. I was waiting for that old man to croak eventually, so I would finally get the money he left me in his will. He was useless, living off my money, eating my food. He was a fool, always too soft and trusting. It did not seem like he would die anytime soon, so I trapping in my house with no way out, leaving him for the assassins after me to kill him. I hit two birds with one stone: I finally got my inheritance and got rid of the meddling old man, the assassins after me killed him, thinking they got me. Foolish ninja. Good when it comes to missions but not to smart in the brains department." He chuckled darkly, rubbing his hands together in glee.

"But what if they find out?" Sakura asked innocently. She had found the man to be pathetic, thinking he could outsmart ninjas. He was greedy, foolish, idiotic, and probably committed almost every sin in the book. But almost every human in this world today was similar. There were no morels and laws didn't matter anymore in this world. The corrupt always seemed to won.

The man stopped chuckling and glared darkly at her. "You won't tell, knowing the smart little girl you are. I could make your life hell and do the most painful things unimaginable to you."

Sakura pretended to look frightened. She whimpered. Her kohl-line jade eyes opened wide, her long lashes fluttering furiously, grasping her hotel uniform kimono tightly.

"Very good." He said satisfied. "Now, where's the real room-service, I asked for?" He purred. "I like it rough." He started walking towards her, roughly grabbing her by the waist against him.

She didn't resist, it was all part of the plan. Before she had pressed a cloth soaked in chloroform against the girl who had been originally suppose to be sent to his room, the poor girl tearfully told her what he was expecting when Sakura had forcefully tried to extract information about why she was being sent to his room. Sakura didn't say anything. She didn't show any piety for the girl, only stealing the uniform from the her and locked her limp body in an closet.

She seductively rubbed his back, tracing circles with his fingers. "Ah… life is great with out my wife or my kids. Always nagging me. Not to mention, the old coot is finally dead. He can't say anything to me. Life's is going to be great. Stupid old man, the look on his face would be priceless if he knew the bastard I really am." She heard him cackle.

It was time. While trailing her hand down his body suggestively, she quietly took her right hand and removed the senbon which was hidden in a holster on her thigh underneath the short, thin, kimono she wore. She leaned closer to him and then she struck, stabbing in the chest. His eyes bulged in anger, as he flinched in pain.

"It's such shame, hm? Don't worry, he died knowing the truth. You'll be joining him soon. You finally will pay for the crimes you have committed. Justice has been finally served." Sakura said smoothly.

His face contorted in an ugly expression of anger and hate as he tried to open his mouth.

"Don't try to say anything. You'll just be in more pain. I punctured your lung with a senbon which was dipped in a poison that will immediately start to regulate in the blood after being inserted in an victim's body. It instantly begins to shut down major organs and send makes nerves send painfully shocks through out the entire body and mixed messages to the brain. Your stomach will first eventually fail and stomach acid will seep into your chest cavity and later on into your liver, large and small intestine, dissolving anything in site. After your nerves sending numerous painfully shocks to your heart and other organs, all your organs will eventually give out and blood will fill your lungs, making you unable to breath and you die, if your lungs don't give out first. It will be a very painful death." Sakura told him emotionlessly.

"You deserve every moment of it, and you will fulfill your fate, to rot in hell for eternity" She finally finished, stepping on his twitching body and then towards the exit, ignoring his silent tortured screams.

She had done the world a favor by getting rid of him. Not that she cared about the world anymore. The world was too corrupted for anyone to help anymore.

This was her life and she had accepted with open arms. She didn't savor it, nor did she hate it. Bringing down and deciding death, easily snuffing out and extinguishing like lives, and swinging down the ax on others. To always be known, as a killer, to live in the shadows, deleting possible threats. To root out the so-called evil people. To always be a sinner. To always be bathed in the scent of blood. To always stink of the unforgettable stench of death and gore. It was her destiny. To be an emotionless tool and instrument to complete her missions, no matter what. To suffer and to keep suffering until it all ended. To eventually die like every other human in this world. To decay, wither away, and designate off this earth. To rot in hell for the numerous temptations in life and sins she had committed.

**

* * *

**

"**Hell song" By Sum41**

**"This is how you remind me" By Nickelback**

"**Taking over me" By Evanescence**

**"Lithium" By Evanescence**

"**Lose Control" By Evanescence**

"**Zetsubo Billy" By MAXIMUM THE HORMONE**

"**WHAT'S UP PEOPLE?" By MAXIMUM THE HORMONE**

"**The WORLD" By Nightmare**

"**What I've done" By Linkin Park**

"**Greed" By Godsmack**

**"Forgive Me" By Godsmack**

"**Rotten Hell" By Menomena **

**Author's note:** I'm sorry for the late update. I've recieved numerous questions when Itachi will show up. Well, next chapter, I can assure you, Itachi will be mentioned. I was hoping to finish this chapter by at least the second or first week of August but work, stress, and life in general got in the way of everything. I wanted to finish this story by the end of August with five chapters. I had a part-time job during evening hours and I usually didn't come home until late night, and I was usually too tired to work on my stories. Not to mention, in the little spare time I either was with friends, resting, shopping for supplies and new clothes, or watching movies. This summer my family got this membership from blockbuster and wanted to watch movies, so I couldn't turn them down. But I had a really great time, watching movies. I saw a whole ton. I was also working on a challenge fic for MoonVeil which I'm still not finished with. I start school in about two days, which is quite late this year, two weeks later than usual and I'm still not settled yet. Not to mention, I depressed. I'm ranting over the corrupted world we live in, greed, money, and sex is always that matters it seems these days and the commericialism that's shoved down our throats. Morals, kindness, and humanity isn't seen too much anymore. Life is just too damn hectic these days too.

Thank you for all the reviews and favorite story adds I've gotten from faithful readers. That really kept me going.

Another obstacle in the way of writing this chapter, was the sudden plagiarism of a story by my dear friend and BETA reader of this story, MoonVeil. Her story, Fighting the Future, was plagiarized by the KittyKatKarma. I was most upset by that and I still am. KittyKatKarma also plagiarized Inuzuka Michi's story, "Where's your boy tonight" in anger, after Michi's spoke against her.

I am very angered that still hasn't taken down MoonVeil's and Michi's stories and hasn't deleted KittyKatKarma's account.

So, please join me and support the many angry reviewers and writers who are trying to get this issue resolved. I would really appreciate it if you guys would take the time to report her and give her a piece of your mind. I'm trying all I can to get her to take those stories down.

Her profile: w w w . fanfiction . net / kittykatkarma

Just remove the spaces above in the link.

I'm sure that all our combined efforts will eventually cause adminstrators to take down the stories and delete her account. And also, everyone supported our cause, I could guarantee some more updates for this story and my other stories. I have a couple of chapters for my other stories I have almost finished that I was saving for later on and a couple of one-shots. Because I spent a lot of time this month, determined and trying to get KittyKatKarma to get those stories down. It would really mean a lot to me and I seriously mean it, if you guys could also protest too. I beg of you, on my hands on my feet, to please support our cause.

I haven't sent this chapter to my BETA reader yet since she's at her grandparents so I apologize for any mistakes but I will upload the edited version of this chapter later on.

Thank you once again,

MagenKyotenChiten


	4. Paralyzed and Suffering

Infatuation, Chapter 4

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Note: this is an unedited chapter by the way, so please excuse any spelling/grammatical errors.

"_The heart was made to be broken__" - Oscar Wilde _

_Suffering is permanent, obscure and dark, And shares the nature of infinity__" - Willaim Woodsworth _

_I hold on so nervously  
To me and my drink  
I wish it was cooling me  
But so far, has not been good  
It's been shitty  
And I feel awkward, as I should  
This club has got to be  
The most pretentious thing  
Since I thought you and me  
Well I am imagining  
A dark lit place  
Or your place or my place _

Well I'm not paralyzed  
But, I seem to be struck by you  
I want to make you move  
Because you're standing still  
If your body matches  
What your eyes can do  
You'll probably move right through  
Me on my way to you 

_- __**Paralyzer by Finger Eleven**_

* * *

It was a dark, surprisingly quiet, summer night as Haruno Sakura sipped her beer in a grimy isolated bar. The old Sakura would have no dared to step into a bar, especially one this filthy and suspicious looking.

It had been one year since that faithful day.

She swirled the murky brown liquid in the dirty glass it was contained in, watching the ice cubes chink against the glass, while pondering the events of the year.

After the mission with the old man and his son, Root superiors had been extremely impressed. She had been immediately appointed to the first squad, the squad that was made up of Root's strongest members. The first squad always received the most gruesome missions. She had become a fallen angel, beautiful but dangerous. Ironically, that was what she was known as, according to many underground groups and other countries. It was also her nickname in the bingo book. She was described to be as beautiful and angelic, shrouded in darkness, feeling nothing as she snuffed out lives.

The first squad had been very different from the other squads she had been assigned to. From all of the regular squads she had been assigned to and from her experience in Root, she had learned that Root mostly consisted of drunk, violent, men who lived to spill blood and to kill. Being the only woman in Root, she was always the odd one out and the center of jeers, tricks, humiliation, and jokes. She was always thought to be "weak" and was always told, "This is a man's job. Stay at home with your husband, woman."

It was sexist of course, but that was how many male ninjas believed of kunoichis, weak women who only got in the way in missions. Sakura endured it for quite a while, but there was a limit. She felt a flare of anger at one drunken man's comment and in retaliation; she castrated him and gutted him to show the drunken male baboons of Root who was "weak."

That had shut them up; fearing they might be castrated too. However, eventually, it had started up again, the snarky comments, jokes, and whispers behind her back. They were careful. Even they were secretly frightened of her.

Nevertheless, the first squad had been much different indeed. The uniform had been peculiar, head to toe clad in black, every part of the body was to be covered and there was even a mask, which covered the entire face. Faces were never seen and were always covered. However, it was clear what gender they were: male. However, unlike the men of the other squads, they treated her with respect and regarded her as one of them. Their attitude indeed was quite opposed to the other squads. They were far from drunken baboons of the other quads, the first squad was the upper crust of root, and was made up with the best, most brilliant, the sharpest, and the shrewdest fighters she had ever seen.

Any member in a complex situation where their own life was in uncertainty was left to fend to him or herself, left to succumb to death.

She had watched a situation where it had happened.

They simply abandoned the body of any squad member who had become a casualty during any mission, stepping on it to get across and then leaving it to decay with out any proper burial or farewell, with out looking back.

There was no notice or acknowledgment of their death even when they went back to Konoha. No funeral, no burial, no names etched into the wall where the names of all of Konoha's loyal ninjas had died in the line of duty. They were forgotten, their death signifying no sacrifice, no loyalty to Konoha.

They showed no emotion perpetually. She had never seen any of them fight amongst each other or ever laugh or discuss about anything besides the mission. They had no friends, no family whatsoever. They were robots; they only lived to complete missions. They were inhuman.

She had somewhat of a social life. She faked a smile and welcomed her former friends with an eerie but perfect façade with no flaw. Life had no edge. They never noticed anything different and accepted her back. Days seem to last forever, with no ending. Months passed slowly, her listlessly existence in Konoha slowly fading.

She had always been in control of her life. She was anal, a perfectionist, everything had to be perfect and in place and precise. She had never wandered off the straight path and she had never indulged herself with things to distract her from the pressure and problems of life. She was rich, skinny, and pretty but she was still unhappy. Control hadn't landed anywhere she wanted to be. She owned absolutely nothing. Everything she owned now belonged to someone else. Alternatively, she had lost it to someone else. Her honor and her duty belonged to Konoha. Her life belonged to ANBU. ANBU were the ones who gave her hefty six-figure salary and could take it away the moment she resigned from ANBU. Her proper mental state of mind and her common sense no longer existed anymore. Her heart had been broken, smashed into tiny pieces, torn out of her chest and stomped on by Sasuke. Her friends were no longer her true friends, just petty acquaintances. Death had stolen her family. She was just a robot, operated by ANBU and Konoha, who could never show her emotions, a killing machine, only tool built to kill. She was not allowed to voice her opinions and show her emotions. She was expected to be calm, emotionless, and cool at all times, even while putting people through unmentionable torture, whether they deserved it or not.

Nothing else. She had nothing anymore. Not even her virginity. She had lost her virginity during a mission. The mission had been to seduce an old crooked loan shark who was a pedophile had a fetish for young women with a disgusting addiction to sex. She had never wanted that mission. However, she had no choice. It had been one of the many solo missions she had been forced to do to show her loyalty, when she had been a rookie in ANBU. She never told anyone that she was a virgin. It was a rare case in Konoha, since ninjas usually lost their virginity very young. She had plastered a frozen smile on her face and nodded when her commanding officer gave her the mission.

She would never forget that night. She didn't remember all the details. Her vision of sex, her first time when she was younger had always been something romantic, slow, and sexy with Sasuke, declaring his love to her with candles burning and red roses. He would soothe her, while she cried in pain. And they would huddle together afterwards. How nice it had been to be so naïve and innocent back then. Reality had hit her hard and that vision had shattered that night when she had seen Sasuke with his arm wrapped around Karin. It was much nicer to live in your fantasy world, then in reality. Reality is harsh as always.

Sakura had never thought much sex after her vision of it had been shattered. She never experimented. She never went out. She never got asked out. She already had enough to think about, too many problems to deal with. Her life consisted of being out of town and completing missions.

Her first time consisted of a fuzzy memory of her being in an slinky negligee in a sleazy hotel room with a obese, ugly, man who was old enough to be her grandfather, tempting him. Flashes of slight pain, skin rubbing against each other, thighs and loins slapping, saliva, her neck aching, and his disgusting feeling of his fat, saggy, sweaty, skin against her skin was all she could really remember about the act. Not that she wanted to remember much about it. There were no fireworks going off in the sky, there was no burst of pleasure that wanted to make her explode, she didn't feel anything at all. This was what people were all hyped about? Sakura had been confused and disgusted. The old man had found it clearly pleasurable, he had been moaning the entire time, salivating over her young, nimble, nubile body.

However, Sakura could vividly remember, waiting, pouncing for the right moment, and when he finally lost control after he came, and pulled out and released his seed on the dirty sheet on the mattress, Sakura quickly plunged a kunai in his heart. He died immediately. His droopy, old eyes bulging, frozen, the expression on his face twisted into confusion and disbelief.

After she disposed of his body cleverly and hiding the evidence, after much effort, Sakura finally returned home with a smirk on her face and reported back to her commanding officer.

It had been said, that he had been so shocked Sakura completed the mission so well and with out feeling any emotion said the words "I fucked him and then I killed him. The job is done." To him, that the man had quit his job as a commanding officer at ANBU. He had always believed women were the weaker gender and could never keep calm in a critical situation.

She was losing control. Sakura stared at the glass of sake in front of her. It was ironic how she hated drinking a couple months ago, always lecturing patients to stop drinking and here she was gulping it down. Shinobi, both men and women would chug it down in amazing quantities when actually got the time to. There were always more patients with alcohol poisoning than injured shinobi in life-and-death situations.

She never quite understood why they drank so much, maybe it was some way to lose them selves and forgot about the many lives they had taken, the blood on their hands or maybe it was in some twisted way, a form of enjoyment. She had always thought risking your health for such a stupid petty thing that clouded your judgment. Human's judgments were already clouded enough.

She always thought smoking, alcohol; drugs were all sickening and distasteful. They ruined a person's life in a quick flash and most likely, before a person knew it, they were on the wrong path in life. Spiraling out of control.

Her life had never been perfect, but she had liked it the ways it had been, there had always been insecurities, but things were just fine. She always had the determination to achieve her goals and to live life no matter what. She had always been strongly against these terrible addictions that ruined people's lives. However, that had been a long time ago.

How ironic it was, she was sitting here drinking the very thing that she had strongly hated.

Now it was a way, to forget to forget everything even though it wasn't for long until the next drink, it was a way to shorten this drowning, lifeless, life. Now, she embraced the burning sensation within her, with each sip. The sharp unmistakable stench of alcohol.

Glass after glass. Her vision began to blurr. And she began to forget. For once. The terrible memories.

The victims. The screams. The blood. The gore. The body parts. The organs. The sobs. The cries. The pleading. The flames. The horrible gurgling sounds. Then eventually silence. Her hands stained with blood.

"Give me another one, bartender." She managed to say still sounding sober. She slammed the glass down on the grimy counter.

The bartender who was an old man, wearing a kimono that looked like it hadn't been washed in ages. He grinned as he washed a dirty glass with an even dirtier rag and showed Sakura his old, rotting, black teeth. "Don't you think you've had enough?" He asked her.

"Why does it matter to you? I'll pay you. Here." She shoved a handful of paper ryo across the counter.

His eyes widened as he realized the stack of cash in front of him. He immediately scrambled to pour her another glass of sake.

"Thank you." Her eyes were slightly glassy.

"No problem. Now why, is a young traveler not from here in this humble bar in the middle of the night when everyone has left town?" He questioned her, before handing her yet another glass of sake.

"I happened to stumble by." She guzzled down the sake and stared at the glass. A lie. Her mission had ended and she was supposed to report straight to the village. But she decided to take a detour for the night. She needed a break. The mission had been particularly messy with blood and gore of a pregnant woman on her hands.

"A lie. Obviously." The old man barked with laughter at her pathetic fib. "Everyone in town has left. Every traveler, every wealthy family, every Hokage, every daimyo has gathered in one place, fire country, Konoha. Haven't you heard about the great wedding about the sole survivor of the Uchiha clan? It is suppose to be a very joyous night. One of the greatest clans in history is finally being reconstructed tonight. Everyone is invited. Paupers. Enemy ninjas. Wealthy business men. Royalty. No one is excluded to celebrate the grandeur of this night. Lots of booze, women, and men." He cackled.

She gripped the glass so tightly, it immediately broke into many tiny shards of glass in seconds, scattering on the squalid floor of the bar. Her gaze was focused into space. Her bloodshot eyeballs fixed on one area.

One year since that _day_. She had forgotten tonight had been the blessed day, Sasuke and Karin were getting married.

How could she have possibly forgotten? Konoha, let alone less than many other countries, had been teeming of the news and of gossip about the couple's engagement. It would no doubt be the biggest wedding in the history of fire country. Konoha had been waiting for this joint union for ages, for it boded well for their village that finally one of the strongest clans that had originated in the village would finally be revived. Invitations had been sent months ago. The inhabitants had been ecstatic; the date had finally been set. The talk of the beautiful invitations filled the village. Who had been invited, who hadn't been invited to what would be one of the greatest and biggest events in the history of Konoha. Everyone had been dying to know whether she had been invited, dropping nasty hints and insinuations to get something out of her. She remembered finally receiving the large, heavy, creamy envelope that had been ornately addressed to her, containing the even more stunning card decorated with the kanji symbolizing love, purity, and happiness, which had smelled of roses:

_You; Miss. Haruno Sakura are invited_

_in the share in the celebration of the holy event of matrimony _

_uniting Karen _

_to_

_Uchiha Sasuke_

_on the Friday of the seventh year of the century _

_at the hour of the ox_

_Dinner, dancing, drinking and a variety of events following the ceremony._

The tips of her fingertips traced over the smoothness of the creamy, ivory envelope for hours, as she read it repeatedly, before staring into space. Finally, she had the resolve the rip the exquisite card and envelope into tiny pieces, watching the pieces of the ripped card fall to the floor.

She would never forget that day. The words had been branded in her memory for forever. It had been a formality. She was not truly invited. The card had been for show and if it got around she had not been sent a card, it would appear to be bad on Sasuke and Karin's part. If she showed up for the wedding, she would supply the gossip mill of Konoha for months and people would jump conclusions such as she still wasn't over Sasuke and she was there to ruin the wedding. However, if she did not show up, it would create the impression that she held an grudge against Karin and Sasuke and did not wish them a happy life. It wouldn't look good for her either how. The burden had been passed on to her.

Sakura didn't really quite care what people thought of her, but she had to bestow a façade that she cared and that she was happy. Weighing the pros and cons of the outcomes of both options, she decided not to go. She would gain nothing if she went to the wedding and she was quite sure everyone at the wedding would jump to the conclusion that she would be there to ruin it. She would not be welcomed. Besides, she did not want to watch the disgusting sweet overly done fake ceremony of two people who were now strangers to her, she did not want to see that manipulative, cold, pathetic, incapable to feel, bastard.

The very next day, as she was casually shopping in the marketplace, Karin and Sasuke passed her by and paused to speak to her. "Well, well." Sasuke spoke first, his arm wrapped tightly around her waist. He scrutinized Sakura up and down. "Not bad. You look quite well. Better that ever." He said, scowling. He had expected her to be a total mess. "Haven't quite made into the mental ward yet? I heard the special unit you're involved in is filled with nutcases and mentally scarring missions. I'm surprised you haven't broke down already, knowing how frail you are." He smirked. Karen snickered.

"How kind of you to consider my mental health, when you don't truly give a shit about me. However, let me remind you, that I am not as frail or as stupid you insinuate me to be. The gossip you have heard about my unit is complete utter nonsense better put, shit. I highly advise you to get your information from source that's reliable more bunch of idiotic, chattering, pea-brained women such as your future wife who live for gossip, even if they create it themselves since they have nothing better to do. My squad is not for those weak at heart or at mind. Best not you should end up in my squad, for you shall perish immediately." Sakura said breezily, her voice ice-cold, her face emotionless as she weighed a peach in her hand, determining it's ripeness.

Even Sasuke winced. Sakura was ruthless. Karin's face reddened, she immediately posed to fight. However, Sasuke held a hand in front of his wife, signaling her to stop. It won't look good if his future wife picked in fight in the streets in front of public. They had been humiliated harshly, but Sasuke wasn't going to let Sakura get away with it. She was going to pay. Karin had been thinking along the same lines.

"Have you received the invitation to our wedding yet? I'm quite sure we had it sent a week ago, you should have received by now. We would love to hear your reply now, whether you'll be attending or not." Karin gushed, her voice dripping with sugar and over enthusiasm, which was obviously faked, and a dangerous smile had been plastered on her face.

_Playing this game? Well, two can play. _"I apologized, but I shall not be attending. I have a top secret S-class mission for the daimyo the exact same day, which clashes the wedding. I would love to come, but the Konoha's safety, income and relationship with the daimyo depends on this mission, which is obviously more important than a petty wedding." Sakura paid the vender for the peaches, and gently placed each peach into a bag, careful of bruising them.

"I insist you come. I am sure you will arrive in time for the wedding. I'm sure you can reschedule, the daimyo will understand." Karin laughed nervously, waving a hand. It was clear that she was relieved that Sakura was coming, but obviously couldn't show it for Sakura won win this round of the fight and people were watching. It wouldn't look good if she didn't nag Sakura and insist her to come.

Sakura's lips curled into a smirk. "Are you suggesting that your wedding is obviously more important than my duty as ninja for Konoha?"

Her words hung in the air dangerously, stung Karin and Sasuke like a slap across the cheek. The cat indeed had caught Karin's tongue, for she began to stutter.

"U-um, A-h..T-that." She began to say. Even Sasuke was too stunned to throw back a snarky insult back at her.

"I highly doubt the daimyo would delay such a risky high priority mission just because you two are being betrothed. My answer is still no. Good day to both of you." Sakura continued, before walking past the couple, leaving them stunned in the dust.

Those following months, after non-stop gossip about her people dared to say in front of her face and around her, after the corpse which, had been delivered to her on a mission with no sender, that had exploded and splattered her head to toe with rotting, decaying, flesh, gore, and bits of organs, toenails, finger nails, and bone, after the word "whore sprayed on her doorstep, after she had come home from a mission to find her home ransacked and expensive items missing, and after the fact that whenever she passed by anyone, they would stare at her and talk in hushed voiced, Sakura began to realize this had gone much father than the humiliation of being rejected. It had started out with people assuming, she was being bashful and upset over the humiliation of Sasuke and Karin such as a school girl would be when secret of who she fancied was revealed and she was rejected by her beau. It had always been deeper than that.

Now, it had gone deeper than that involving arson, murder, blackmail, and much more. Sakura was only waiting for the end point. She was patient, quiet, and didn't play dirty unlike Sasuke and Karin. She was determined to have the last laugh.

They had won the first round, however it wouldn't be the last. They were the ones to start the game. What must goes up, must come down. What goes around, must come around.

It is sad how a person can just erase someone else from their life completely. How two people who use to be so close become strangers.

This happens to people, numerously in their lives. The exact same people, they trusted so dearly, who held their hand through the hard times just a short while ago are now nothing but strangers. Tragic, but it is one of the many cycles of life.

Sakura's head pounded. The pace of her heart beat quickened. Her eyes watered and burned. Fragmented, broken pieces of memories were flooding her brain. She griped the table for table.

"Give me another." She managed to gasp, her voice wobbly.

"It doesn't look like ya can manage another down, miss." The old man tsked. "This is some strong stuff."

Suddenly, the door of the grimy filthy broken bar swung open. Sakura felt the gust of cold wind come into the bar. She shivered. Who could it possibly be at this hour and during such an night where everyone was celebrating and partying?

She heard the swish of cloth against the mucky floor of the bar and managed to fix her tired gaze on the figure that had just entered the bar, a heavily clad character, draped entirely in a long, heavy and large, black cape. Their stride was long and graceful. The figure radiated a powerful commanding aura with each graceful cat-like step it took.

Sakura's nose filled with the scent of sandal wood; the scent of it was exotic as if it was from far away; a woodsy, spicy, earthy smell mixed in with sweat, it was a purely masculine scent. _A man_, she thought as the traveler took a seat next to her.

The old man squinted at the stranger, determining if he was a broke alcoholic bum or a rich traveler. Sorting into the later category, he attempted to grin at him, flashing him all of his rotten black teeth. "What would you like, respectful traveler?" he asked, bowing his head in respect.

The traveler ignored him, his face covered with a black heavy hood.

"Pft. I should have gone to that big Uchiha wedding. Our entire town received an invitation. No use opening the bar on such a night. Woulda been free booze, girls, and food. " The old bartender grumbled bitterly.

The traveler finally removed the hood from his head. Thick ebony hair hid his face, long bangs covering his eyes. Only a flash of flawless porcelain skin and the curve of his long, thick, black lashes were visible.

"Uchiha wedding." He spoke. His voice was deep, smooth, and velvety like chocolate as it rumbled through the small bar, enforcing his power aura, which commanded authority.

"What do you mean by this Uchiha wedding?" he questioned, a small hint of curiosity in his voice.

The old man bartender stared at him for a couple of seconds before bursting into pearls of laughter. "Where have you been this past months? Everyone knows about the wedding of Uchiha Sasuke."

Even Sakura looked oddly at this strange traveler. _The bartender was right. _Even though she hated to admit, the Uchiha wedding had been a big event for months, plastered in newspapers and gossiped about the rich and poor for months

The traveler ignored the old man's laughter. "Please enlighten me on this topic, bartender-san." The words flowed smoothly from his mouth.

"Information costs money." The old man beamed his ugly teeth at him again.

"One vodka please." The traveler requested, before placing 8000 ryo on the table. "Is that enough?" he asked coolly.

The old man's eyes bulged when he saw the money. He quickly filled a brown, cracked, grungy glass generously with vodka and slid it across the grimy counter.

The traver disregarded the glass, it was clear he only wanted the information.

"It's common news, Uchiha Sasuke returned to Konoha after killing that wacko brother Itachi and immediately got engaged to some wench named Karin that had been his comrade who had helped over through Itachi and Orochimaru. They had been planning this wedding for months. The grandest foods, drinks, dresses, and decorations have been demanded for this wedding. The most magnificent finery you've ever seen. High-quality everything, the best silks from Earth country and foods so exotic they have been shipped half way around the world to fire country. It is suppose da be the finest, luxurious, and most expensive wedding of all times. Famous people, poor people, entire towns, daimyos, lords and ladies from all over Japan and around the world. My entire town was invited. I even saw the invitation and it was on the most prettiest paper I've ever seen. It smelled really good too. Tonight is the night the wedding is to be held. It's going on right now, I bet." The old man whispered enthusiastically with a dreamy look in his eyes, waving his hands avidly.

The stranger stared intently at the old man. He smirked before mumbling something that was incomprehensible to hear. "Isn't that compelling? The great Uchiha clan will finally be constructed." He drawled.

"Oh indeed. They suppose to have that weird red eye thingy too that's suppose to have x-ray vision." The old man agreed.

"I believe you meant to say, the Sharingan. The Uchiha family bloodline technique is the Sharingan and there are two different types of Sharingan. Uchiha Sasuke's Brother, Itachi Uchiha was said to have the Manegekyo Sharingan. " Sakura found herself saying.

The old man and the traveler turned to stare at her.

"Well, we ain't all miss smarypants. How'd you know that anyways?" The bartender snapped at her.

She had caught the traveler's attention too. "Were you ever aquatinted the Uchiha family?" He turned to acknowledge her. He was only a hairbreadth away from her and she could smell and feel his warm, minty, spicy breath on her.

"No." She quickly lied. "I know only since I heard people talk about it."

"Oh really? The average population doesn't really know about details like that. Especially about the Mangekyo Sharingan." She heard his sultry whisper against the shell of her ear.

"Pardon me, but how would you know that?" Sakura challenged him, nervously twirling a strange of pink hair with her finger. The stranger was quick and tactful. He didn't let things go by him. But she had been foolish to allow her knowledge of the Uchiha family slip her tongue.

"I'm not the average person." He breathed.

Even though it was a chilly, gusty, artic night that was not the reason why Sakura felt bone chilling cold. For once in a very long time, she felt nervous, jittery, and scared, as if she was being cornered. As if, she was prey for once instead of the predator. The aura in the bar was suffocating, stifling her need for air. Her heart rate spiked. Her palms were clammy and sweating. Her pupils were wide. Something wasn't right. Something was drastically wrong. There was something familiar about this person.

The oppressive and humid atmosphere almost suddenly disappeared as quickly as it appeared. "So, what is your opinion on the Uchiha wedding, since you seem to know so much about the clan?" The stranger queried, ignoring any tension that had between them.

"I don't care. It's none of my business." She spat bitterly, before taking long sip of sake.

"It's been publicized a lot. I wish I coulda gone." The old man sighed.

"Hmmm. I wonder what happened to that girl, Sakura Haruno? She was said to be one of Uchiha Sasuke's closest female comrades." His rich, deep, voice echoed through out the room.

_What did happen to her? Where did she go?, _Sakura couldn't help but think at the same time.

_What am I now?_

"She's said to gone mad after Uchiha Sasuke declared his engagement? Turned into a complete blood-thirsty monster. She'll kill anyone in her way, children, women, men, a and anything. A fallen angel. She'll slit your throat in the dead of the night and you won't even realize. She's every child's worst nightmare, these days." The old man whispered, his eyes opened wide in horror and glee.

The ends of Sakura's lips twitched. She was so feared, that she even haunted children in their dreams?

The stranger began to chuckle. Eerie, cold, mirthless, laughter. "How ironic. The one who use to save lives, known for her healing abilities and kind heart, now extinguishes the most lives by any ninja." He said darkly.

Ironic indeed.

"Times have changed. A comrade, the person you least expect, becomes an enemy and betrays you, plunges a dagger in your heart in a heartbeat. The people who least expect are the ones to be feared." She uttered, before studying the stranger. It was nearly impossible to see his face. Thick, long, black, shiny, bangs fell into his eyes and covered his entire face. The cloak he was swathed in before, appeared to be made of warm, heavy material that was probably expensive.

There was a loud banging sound as fierce winds howled against the shabby roof of the bar. Sakura pulled the loose, brown, thin cloak she was wearing tightly around her small and petite frame. She closed her eyes. She wished she back home, drinking

flavorful, rose-cherry, colored mead, curled up on top of her futon, covered in fur blanks, and surrounded by a warm, merry, fire crackling to warm her frozen body. She wanted to be far away from this dump. Her head ached and a buzzing noise kept on echoing through her brain.

"Touche. However, true. The only person you can trust is your self." The stranger smirked, as Sakura caught a quick glimpse of his thin red lips twisting up into an eerie smile.

There was something very amiss about this stranger. It didn't take a fool to notice the man is a ninja. Judging from his etiquette, his way of speaking, and his actions so far, Sakura had no doubt that this man was no ordinary ninja. Not to mention, that this man slightly creeped her out. Nobody creeped her. Her gut instinct screamed to slit the man's throat immediately.

_Ba-bump. Ba-bump. _Sakura could hear the pace of heart beating in her ears, becoming faster every moment. The image of the sinister smirk of the stranger remained etched in her brain. He was doing something to her. _He's fucking with me, he's fucking with my mind, _she thought.

"Ah, I shall be on my way now. It is almost morning." The stranger suddenly drawled with the cool, cold, deep voice of his. He nodded towards the bar tender, pushing some tips on the counter top towards him. "And a Good night to you." He tipped his head to Sakura, before gracefully lifting his dark frame out and swiftly slipping through the bar's exit.

Sakura sat there, dumbfounded. His feet had not made a single sound with each step. You could never ever heard, if he was sneaking up behind you. He made no sound with each move he made. He was gracefully, silent, and subtle. She couldn't let him go. She couldn't let him leave alive. The signs were too clear.

However, who was this mysterious ninja?

Suddenly, clear as day, it struck Sakura like lightening. Her mind fit together all the puzzle pieces. Her beryl green eyes expanded in shock and her jaw nearly dropped open. She gingerly touched her cheek, it was almost as if someone had slapped her across the face. How could have she been so foolish?

_Uchiha Itachi. _

But it was impossible. It absolutely made no sense.

But all everything pointed to him. He was suppose to be dead.

But Sakura Haruno was never wrong. If she trusted more than anything else, it was her mind. Her instinct. Her logic.

And she never _ever _doubted herself.

* * *

**PLAYLIST:**

"Paralyzer" By Finger Eleven

"How Far We've Come" By Matchbox 20

"Misery Business" By Paramore

"Pressure" By Paramore

"Hear Me Out" By Frou Frou

"Control Freak" By Copeland

"The Suffering" By Coheed and Cambria

"A Favor House Atlantic" By Coheed and Cambria

"Liar Liar (Burn in Hell)" By The Used

**Author's note:**

Merry Christmas. Here's your Christmas gift. You wanted a new chapter of Infatuation and you got it. Oh, this is an unedited chapter by the way, so please excuse any spelling/grammatical errors. I finished writing this at 12am in the morning.

I'm honestly sick and tired of people trying to tell me to UPDATE! I know all of you are pissed, I haven't updated in months. However, please understand…

My life is a fucking mess right now. I've got so many problems, I don't know how or what to make heads or tails of it. I feel like I'm going to succumb and crumble to the pressure any moment. This event occurred that's probably going to scar me forever, that I'm slowly recovering from. I'm not sure if it possible to hate a person so much. But I've recently discovered it is. The school year is terrible. My teachers are all so strict, they are like fucking Nazis. I've been buried with homework, essays, reports, thesis statements, and projects. They've all bitched at me so much, I've actually cried in every single of classes. I've been threatened with detention for the most dumbest things. I'm doing so fucking bad in math, I'm not sure if it's real. I've recently gotten a 55 on a test, bringing my grade down to a C-, which I've never ever gotten in my life. I have no motivation. I hate the most people I have my classes with. All of them are so fucking fake, good two shoes and sugary, it's nauseating. It makes me feel ill.

I have my fair share of problems at home. There's almost no money to run the show and my mom's quite ill at the moment. Not to mention, my laptop received a nasty Trojan that took almost a month to clean up/out and I think there are still traces of it. I'm not sure if it's all gone. I was so close to losing all my info, all my documents and so forth.

I hate myself for the moment. This is the most depressed I've been in months. I'm actually feeling more depressed than the events that occurred in the past that caused me to write, Haunted. There is almost no pleasure in life for me in anything. I haven't watched anime/manga in weeks. I haven't watched any of my favorite TV shows. I haven't read any of my favorite fan fictions on here in weeks. Reading is just a bored. No movie I watch anymore interests me. Food holds no pleasure for me anymore. I haven't listened to any good new music in weeks either. I haven't felt truly happy from September onwards.

I can't even look forward to Christmas. Because I will not be receiving any presents and no, my family does not get together and have a great, big, hearty, dinner. Why? I usually get presents. But this year, my grades apparently are "bad" and have left my parents appalled, not to mention, there is no money for presents when there's barely enough to pay for food on the table and bills. I was hoping for a digital camera, or a northface denali fleece jacket, Super Mario Galaxy for Wii, and Guitar Hero III. But that won't be happening this year. At least, I got a warm hoodie and shirt from my best friend. I'm thankful for that. I'm not sure what I'd do with out her.

I've been thinking so much about suicide these past months. How easy it would be for everything to end. To release myself from the fucking pressure and anxiety and depression. So, I don't have to deal with it or anything anymore. Which way should I kill myself? Pills, drug overdose, by slitting my wrists, or by hanging myself? I've thought every possible way that could work. Nobody home and nobody suspecting anything.

I'm at my wit's end and I'm hanging by a thread here. I'm so tired of everything. I'm pretty sure I would have attempted the deed already if it wasn't for my friends and you guys, my reviewers.

Not to mention, I'd hate having this shitty fucktards/dick heads who never even knew me or who hated me coming to my funeral, crying and saying crap about "how they knew me and how they never knew what I was feeling and how we were good friends." Absolute bullshit. Not to mention, I'd only cause my family and friends, pain. In addition, that is the last thing I want to cause them, pain and inconvenience.

My friends. God, I don't know where or what I'd do with out them. Thank you for trying to make me smile and for making me laugh and feel happy. Thank you for all the good times. I love you guys and I hope this sucky time ends soon. These days, everything I do, is wrong or isn't good enough or is terrible. So, a simple compliment, which I barely even get these days, brings a slight smile to my face. I'm very thankful for your reviews.

Ah. I think I'd end here now.

Anyways, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Sincerely,

MagenKyotenChiten


	5. Pain and Suffocation

_Infatuation, Chapter 5_

* * *

_But long before,  
Having hurt,  
I'll send the pain below,  
I'll send the pain below._

Much like suffocating,  
Much like suffocating,  
Much like suffocating (I'll send the pain below),  
Much like suffocating (I'll send the pain below).

_I liked,  
Having hurt,  
So send the pain below,  
So send the pain below (Much like suffocating) (I liked),  
So send the pain below (Much like suffocating) (Having hurt),  
So send the pain below (Much like suffocating),  
So send the pain below (Much like suffocating),  
So send the pain below._

_**- Send the Pain Below by Chevelle **_

* * *

_Uchiha Itachi. _

Sakura instinctively yanked her heavy traveler's cloak around her as tight as she could.

_Sasuke's brother. _

One of Konoha's most prized ninjas, Uchiha Itachi had been a god, literally almost worshipped. A child prodigy admired by many for his skill, intelligence, subtleness, and tactfulness. He became ANBU's youngest captain in the history of Konoha at the tender age of 13. He eventually had said slowly gone crazy slaughtering his entire clan, excluding Sasuke for some unknown, twisted reason.

_Too bad, Itachi didn't finish him off_, she thought. _He would have saved me a lot of trouble. _

According to the bingo book, over ten countries wanted his head for various crimes.

The correct term here was, _had_ wanted.

Declared dead, in the latest battle between the Uchiha brothers, Uchiha Itachi was no longer alive. Sasuke, after destroying his brother's genjutsu and enabling and trapping his brother in his own genjutsu, he manipulated chakra, said to equal the amount it would take to use Chidori over five times, into his chokoto, and blew a hole the size of a crater into his brother's body, destroying over two vital organ systems.

_There was no way a human could live after so much damage to the body_, Sakura reasoned.

However, the stranger clearly indicated he was none other, than the notorious Uchiha Itachi.

_Apparently, Sasuke didn't finish him off_, she thought, slightly irritated. She was not in the mood right now to deal with an enemy ninja. Tired, hungry, smelly, and dirty, Sakura wanted nothing more but to go home. It was almost dawn, she was drunk and her next mission would be starting in a couple of hours. Besides, she needed to clean her weapons, which were already crusty with dried blood and gore, from the previous mission.

This wasn't the usual ninja either, which would make things complicated.

Then she snickered. Sasuke lavished in the admiration, praised for weeks on end, and deemed as a "hero", for finally relieving the world of his brother's troublesome some existence. However, it was released that he didn't quite yet wash his brother of his hands, he would be humiliated and she would be deemed as a martyr.

Sasuke had dreamed, eaten, and slept of killing his elder brother for revenge ever since that faithful day, Itachi decided it would be fruitful to rid Konoha of the Uchiha clan. In fact, Sasuke had lived to kill his brother. The public humiliation would be nothing compared to the distress, despair, mortification, shame, fury and indignation, Sasuke would suffer from his own ego at himself. It would probably kill him, combined with the enormous amount of guilty self-piety he'd wallow in. The thought of it, brought an warped grin to Sakura's face. He would deserve it, of course. Every single moment of it.

She had two choices, which both anyhow, would piss Sasuke off to hell exceptionally. He'd never forgive her and would hate her to death, which was what Sakura was aiming for. The bastard deserved feel bitch slapped by her.

She could either capture the Uchiha alive in battle and force feed him drugs so she would drag him back to Konoha for interrogation or she could corner the Uchiha and kill him right then and there, taking his head back to Konoha as a souvenir.

She quickly weighed the pros and cons of the situation. If she brought Itachi back to Konoha alive and drugged for interrogation, ROOT could gain some precious information from him before killing him. The reward for highly sensitive information would most likely be for her rank to rise and her salary to double.

But of course, Sasuke would not let any one in Konoha annihilate Itachi, except himself. He would no doubt for sure: make sure he would be doing the honors of exterminating his elder brother. Even though, he would still suffer humiliation both publically and privately, he would still be able to clear his conscience by making sure his elder brother is dead this time by his own hands.

No, cornering the man, ending it quickly, swiftly slitting his throat, and bring it back to Konoha as a prize would cause Sasuke so much more pain. It would literally a slap across the fact, to him. He'd be in pure agony, that he, the one who had vowed to avenge his clan, had not been the one do the honors.

_Ooh, this was good. _Sakura licked her dry, chapped, lips. In any situation, her rank number would be bumped, her status as a ninja skyrocketing. Her paycheck would be much, more, fatter, and she would literally be known as a god, for exterminating for the man who slaughtered the entire Uchiha clan and had survived the death his now powerful younger brother had planned out and dreamt of for years. The reward in the bingo book for the Uchiha had been 8 million ryo. If she brought his head back as a trophy, when he was rumored to be dead, she'd receive double that amount.

She nearly rubbed her hands together in glee, but instead she fumbled with her heavy, thick, traveler's cloak, reaching into the pockets, grabbing a fat stack of Ryo bills clumped together and nearly chucked it at the bar tender's head.

"That's for the bill. Have a good night." She managed to say, before disappearing out of the bar in a poof, missing the astonished look on old man's face.

Sakura sniffed the cold, crisp, winter, air. There were still faint traces of his chakra in the air and the path he had taken quickly formed in her mind. This was a very lucky night, as either, the Uchiha had been lazy or stupid to not cover his tracks or he simply wanted her to find him. Whatever way, he had been very, very, foolish to allow Sakura to discover his tracks.

_Succumb and become another victim to death by my hand, Uchiha_, she thought, as she gripped a shruiken, hidden in the numerous folds of her large traveler cloak.

Now, it was time to decide what weapon, strategy, and what technique, she should use. Her katana would be out of question, since it was already rusty with dried blood from her previous mission. She had plenty of weapons, such as senbons, shruikens, poisons, kunais and much more. However, this was no average opponent. Weapons would not help her much in this situation.

_Ninjutsu? Taijutsu? Genjutsu? Which one? _Sakura closed her eyes to clear her head.

Taijutsu would not be her best option since Itachi was a far-range fighter and it could probably make it very easy to evade of all of her attacks. He would have the upper hand.

Ninjutsu or Genjutu?

The two main ways of canceling genjutsu, the first way was to stop the flow of chakra or to cause severe pain to one self to cancel jutsu.

Her best bet would be use a mix of genjutsu and ninjutu.

Her heart quickened with each breath as she quickly raced through the allies.

_Ah. _There he was. His dark shrouded figure stood only a few meters away. He had been waiting for her.

Sakura exhaled sharply. It was time. Her nimble, quick, fingers made the signs of the basic _Shunshin no Jutsu_ to raise her senses by a tenfold.

She disappeared in a flash, her figure now behind Itachi's dark, large, shrouded, mysterious figure, placing the sharp edge of a kunai against his neck.

"Uchiha Itachi. Former ANBU captain. Wanted traitor by Fire Country and twelve other countries, accused of treason, murder, embezzlement, torture, the slaughter of the Uchiha clan, and etc. I'm here to bring down your judgment. Konoha's wanted your body for many years now. You've escaped the clutches of death too many times." The words rolled smoothly and professionally off her tongue.

As soon as the words came out of her mouth, he quickly disappeared and reappeared.

"Sakura Haruno, member of the first squad of Root, the hush-hush, secret division, consisting of Root's strongest members. The team ready to comply to any preposition in order to protect Konoha." His dark, deep, velvety baritone voice, which was cold as ice at the same time, rumbled through out the small, dirty, alley.

He seized the hood of his dark, black, cloak and revealed his true face. The Uchiha was handsome indeed and looked very similar to his younger sibling. Long, black, silky, bangs framed his eyes. His hair, neatly tied back, was as dark as night, sleek, and flippy and his skin was colored a smooth, waxy, milky, pale white. He had a sharp, straight, nose and a sharp, proud jaw with flawless, blunt, angular features and high, razor-sharp cheekbones. His lips were not full but were not thin either, were a light salmon pink.

But his oval eyes fringed with thick, long, black, lashes, inset in his sunken face was the feature that drew you in the most, dark as murder's soul and bottomless and never ending as the pits of hell. The lack of sleep, stress, and years of insanity were visible, as lines under his eyes, starting from his nose and ending at his cheekbones marred his Adonis face, making the elder Uchiha look years older.

"The former pupil and apprentice to the one of the three great Sannin, Tsunade, one of the most respected and renowned ninjas in the category of Ninjutsu. Thought to continue her master's legacy, but she threw away everything, and became a legacy, a fallen angel from hell, slitting the throats those who wary away from the path of justice." His pink lips curled up in a smile. "You were acquainted with my younger brother, weren't you?"

"We know each other so let's skip the pleasantries or shall I say, the introductions, hm, Uchiha-san? Let's get this over with quick and fast." She managed to say coolly, ignoring his mention her relationship Sasuke.

The sky suddenly turned a deep red and crows surrounded Sakura, with their ominous black, beady, eyes and onyx feathers.

A genjutsu. She quickly dispelled it and created her own genjutsu, changing and warping Itachi's surroundings into a brightly-lit world filled with moving shapes and falling cherry blossom petals. The bright light should burn the retinas of his almost ruined eyes, causing pain, a distraction, which would cause Itachi to delay his immediate reaction to dispel the jutsu, buying Sakura time to attack.

She calculated the scenario perfectly, as the Elder Uchiha grimaced for a slight second. She attacked immediately. She immediately immbolized him and stabbed the elder Uchiha with a Kunai, inches away from his femoral artery. Blood immediately started oozing from the area in great amounts.

However, seconds later Sakura smirked. Sweet victory.

However, she was wrong, the second after she smirked, Itachi disappeared in a poof of smoke. It was a kage-bushin.

Her pink lips puckered down into a frown and her perfectly plucked pink brows became furrowed. This was going to be hard.

The Uchiha moved ultra-fast and he excelled in creating an illusion to escape from an attack at the last minute. Not to mention, she needed to fight this battle from far-range since most of his genjutsus were short range and she excelled at close-combat fighting; fighting from afar had been her weak spot. She had to be careful of his Demonic Illusion: Heaven and Earth change genjutsu on her, with that jutsu he could easily turn her genjutsu against her.

She could never look at his face that was the key of the fight. If she looked into his eyes, she would be finished, sucked into an illusion she would probably never be able to defeat. She could only tell where he was located and his attacks based on the movement of his feet and arms. She had to base her attacks on his movements.

The gears whirred in her brain and she thought of all the possible ways to fight the Uchiha. Then she remembered Chiyo-baasan's words. "There are plenty of ways to fight eye techniques. When it's one-on-one run away. When it's two-on-one, get him from the back. If it's one-on-one, you cannot win, run away. But if it's two-on-one, if one person get's caught in a genjutsu, the other one can attack from behind. And if you attack the user, the genjutsu would disappear. Of if an attack isn't possible, you can dispel the genjutsu by hitting your ally. One person needs to be the diversion and the rest will attack the Sharingan's blind spot from behind.

She could have easily defeated the Uchiha if it had been two-on-one, however that wasn't an option she now. She needed a distraction. Then it hit her, her distraction would have to be Kage-bushins. Multiple Kage Bushins would save her.

She would need to use a combination of Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Genjutsu, mixed in with medic nin techniques and her lethal strength by storing chakra in her arms and legs, in order to beat this revered yet feared fallen prodigy.

First, she would use medic nin techniques, to disable his muscles. Chakra no Mesa would be the first starting technique. She quickly created a number of kage-bushins in order to distract Itachi to get that extra seconds she needed to in order to create the right seals for the medic jutsu in order to charge her hands. She felt her fingers tingle in anticipation, as soon they would be able to slice and dice him with precision.

Faster than the speed of light, she began to move, her abs contracting, legs and legs pumping harder and faster in order to get to the target quickly: Itachi. As the kage-bushin attacked from the front and back, she was coming from the side. Her hands charged with chakra immediately began to strike him, the moment he spun around, ready to counter her attack. He dodged her moves and managed to use genjutsu to disappear. However, it was already too late. The chakra had already reached his body internally and muscles, veins, and organs were already damaged. She had managed to get his eye and an area of his heavy black cloak that swathed his entire body near his stomach was already wet with blood, indicating she had damaged either his intestines or hopefully his liver.

The attack had been successful but she couldn't get over her head. The attack had severely drained her chakra supply and there was no time to rest. She began to build chakra in her first, gracefully leaping up and dodging attacks in order to release the chakra at Itachi. Releasing her chakra at her surroundings, the sky was immediately full of debris, which would constrict the elder Uchiha's vision.

Wasting, no time, her nimble fingers promptly removed a kunai from the weapons pouch strapped to her knee. She spun it around on her dainty ring, appraising it while racing towards the Uchiha. The kunai was old and most defiantly rusty. Nevertheless, a weapon was still a weapon and it she didn't have enough time to grab another. She needed to attack. The discolored kunai gripped tightly in her fist, she stabbed the elder Uchiha's hand as he was dodging debris; slicing the bone in his thumb.

The elder Uchiha did not even grimace; he began to create another genjutsu for Sakura to get stick in.

Dispelling the genjutsu, she moved her hands swiftly; it was impossible for the human eye to catch a glimpse of even her fingers moving. She formed the seal of the kage bushin no jutsu. Seven identical Sakuras appeared.

Two of the Sakura kage-bushin immediately distracted Itachi from the front; they began to build up chakra in their fists and started to release it. Chakra oozed out and crackled from their fists, as the bushins raced towards Itachi, their target, attempting to throw punches at him.

Simultaneously, Sakura quickly created genjutsu the moment the bushins were ready to attack and she was getting ready to attack him from the back the moment he dodged the attack.

Without question, Itachi quickly dodged their attacks. He wasn't fooled, he knew if he suffered even a poke from one of the bushins, it would be deadly. Sakura's fatal strength from her excellent ability of chakra control had gained her renewed fame across all the hidden villages and lands. The immerse amount of strength she gained from storing chakra had one of the many amazing ninja characteristics that made her legendary. It was almost unheard of a kunoichi who had such tremendous extent of strength.

She appeared directly behind him and she thrust a deadly senbon into his lumbar portion of his spine. Blood immediately gushed the area and she caught a glimpse of shattered bone. The attack also probably severed nerves, meaning the Uchiha would be feeling great pain.

The edges of her lips twitched slightly into a smile. She had got a hit. Maybe it was a sign of victory. She shouldn't get her hopes too high.

She saw a flash of pain expressed on the normally stony face of the elder Uchiha for a fleeting second, before his face reverted to the usual emotionless expression.

Then she realized her mistake. The main rule against fighting an Uchiha was never to stare them in the face.

_It can't be…_

The elder Uchiha slowly opened his closed eyes, penetrating her with his eerie blood-red sharingan eyes and the tomoe in his eye were spinning ominously.

Suddenly, the atmosphere was changing and everything was swirling around her.

The moment his eyes fully opened, the surroundings immediately changed into the dire burgundy sky with dreary ink-black stained clouds and a foreboding crimson sun hung in the sky.

Tsukuyomi.

She had only heard rumors and warnings about this elder Uchiha's amazing and blood curling jutsu. The stories were enough to send chills up your spine for hours. The victims of this jutsu were said to never be the same afterwards. It was impossible to recover both mentally and physically. Tsukuyomi broke a shinobi's spirit in every way possible. Tsukuyomi was jutsu enabling the user to force the vicim to endure torture in the cruelest ways both mentally and physically for what seemed an eternity or an endless amount of time in this malefic world in actuality what was only a couple of minutes. In the world of Tsukuyomi, the elder Uchiha controlled time and space. A wound may seem real in Tsukuyomi, although it wasn't, the pain was still real.

Kakashi had been the only victim to recover physically and mentally for Tsukuyomi. Sakura remembered how frail and thin he had looked in the hospital after fighting Itachi. Dark rings circled his blood-shot wide eyes, and new wrinkles had appeared on his face, making him look years older. A thick stubble of covered his waxy, pale, face, which was very unusual, since he was anal about being very hygienic. His smooth, thin, pink lips were cracked, puffy, and bleeding and his usually proud, aristocratic, straight, nose was crooked and broken. He was unable to pronounce words, let alone speak sentences. His voice was hoarse, raw, and cracked.

Kakashi had always been a proud, honest, handsome, man with who took pride his honor and dignity. To him, the village always came first. He took great pride in being a ninja. He'd do anything in order protect those who were precious to him.

But during that time period, after he endured the attack of Tsukuyomi, he was a unresponsive, vegetative state for weeks. The sensei, the man, who she had greatly admired, had seemed to diminish in those weeks. She watched in horror by his bedside, as he threw fits like a small toddler, screaming about the demons in his mind and the things he had done. He could no longer even attempt to do everyday things by himself and always needed assistance in eating, walking, and even going to the bathroom.

It was like he was now an entirely different man.

That was not how anyone should ever see his or her sensei or someone they admire in a state like that. From seeing her sensei in such a state, Sakura learned something important: Even the strongest man has his weakness. Everyone has a weakness and Sakura discovered that once you find a person's weak point and exploit it, that person would always crumble. She had learned this the hard way, when Sasuke broke her heart the day he announced his engagement to Karin.

After, that she had managed cut off and remove obvious weakness she had. Before, the old Sakura had been naïve, innocent, convinced that no one would try to hurt her and had plenty of weaknesses. The new Sakura had tried to remove herself from anyone or anything that was considered a "weakness". She refused to crumble again and to be exploited again. It was simpler to live a life with all ties cut off, life was less complex and it had become easier to be a ninja and to abide to shinobi rule 25: never to show any emotion. It was her winning card in a battle, she had nothing to loose, no weaknesses to be exploited. Having no weaknesses, it was one of the things that had brought her so far.

She dug her fingernails into her sweaty palms, until she drew blood. She took a deep breath and closed to her eyes. There was nothing she could do except endure. She had nothing to lose. She braced her self and opened her eyes.

She found herself bound to a black cross. _Am I going to be crucified?_, she thought as she stared up at the endless crimson sky. The elder Uchiha appeared immediately in front of her, in an entirely odd black silhouette. "I wonder how long you can last, Sakura-san, since you do not posses the sharingan or a blood line limit. This is the end." His words echoed through the strange world. He held a black, sharp, kantana and raised it, immediately thrusting it into in an area near her right hip. She remained stoic, as felt the thousands signals of pain her brain sent out. She refused to give him what he wanted: a sign that she was in pain.

The wound quickly disappeared, shrinking into a tiny speck before there was nothing. Soon, there were multiple clones surrounding the cross, revealing kantanas from their black cloaks and all of them began take turns, piercing her with the kantanas, like mindless robots.

The mental pain her brain was enduring was horrendous; her body was confused as the wounds began to disappear without a single trace. The intense amounts of pain she was feeling were getting worst. There was no way to voice her pain except emotionally, she couldn't even grab the ends of the cross. Her hands and feet hung uselessly; bound to the cross. Even with feeling so much pain, Sakura refused to even sweat or show an ounce of pain she was feeling.

"So, far, I have been stabbing you for approximately 124 hours. I was planning to continue for another 24 hours until you were dead. However, it seems, Sakura-san, this is children's play for you…" Itachi's voice rang in her ear drums. "Perhaps, you would enjoy this better?..."

The scene changed and Sakura was now immobilized, her long lean thin body stretched out downwards and chained to a long board, face-first, her hands and feet bound by chains. She wasn't quite sure what kind of torture this was, since there was so many different types of forms of torture that included the victim to be immobilized in such a way. Suddenly, Itachi hovered over her and began to pour large amounts of water over on top of her head, the water immediately went into her mouth and nasal passages, making it impossible for her to breathe. She immediately began to gag in order to try to get the water out of her breathing passages but it was to no avail since the water constantly poured down on her. There was no opportunity for her to take a breath and she closed her eyes as she felt the water burning her nasal passages and lungs. He was using the water torture technique of water boarding, to create a drowning experience to cause asphyxia. The key was to not to choke and to believe she wasn't drowning and she began to concentrate her mind of meditation in order to relax her mental state. It wasn't easy as the pain was immerse, as it felt like her lungs were going to burst.

Finally, after what it seemed like days, reality returned. She felt the hard, cold, gritty, ground underneath her and soaked up scene around her and accessed the damage to her body. The red, crimson, liquid was leaking from everywhere unto her tiny, porcelain hands. Her own blood. Half of her fingernails were ripped off, a bloody, gorey, mess. Nearly fifty bones in her body were broken, some felt so damn painful, she would't be surprised if they were shattered. The kunai, which was slick with blood – she wasn't sure if it was sure blood or if it was the Uchiha's blood, slid out of her uninjured hand.

She was in disbelief. She had never spilled this much of her own blood in months. If she did not return from Konoha soon, she would die from blood loss.

Her knees were weak as they began to buckle and her limbs and ached. Her entire body writhed in agony as it if was being torn in two from the affliction she was in. Her mind screamed in anguish and distress, and her head pounded. Snapshots, shards, of old memories began to flash through her head. Black and white blurry spots and bright circles of light plagued her sight. It felt like her heart was having a heart attack, as if something was squeezing it very painfully until it could burst. Her heart rate was irregular, above 200. It felt like every single fiber of her existence was being shocked by electricity over and over again.

Her travel's cloak was barely a bunch of rags now, heavily soaked in her own blood.

However, Itachi looked ten times worst. Blood trickled down the masculine bulge of his adam's apple, from his mouth and he was weakly coughing up blood almost every ten seconds. Nearly every organ in his body was crushed from the impact of Sakura's attacks. His left hand was missing two digits, bleeding profusely and Sakura would faintly see her rusty kantana had not done the job cleanly and that bits of bone poked out from the bloody stumps that were formerly his thumb and his index finger. His left eyelid was slit, puffy and red, bleeding into his already nearly blind eyes.

However, his heavy traveler's cloak wasn't damaged as badly, with only tears and holes everywhere. With his hands trembling, he still managed to move away the left side of the cloak, with a half-smirk on his face.

Sakura gasped. There was hole the size of his fist on his right side body, exactly after the ribs. The hole looked a quarter healed, a thin silvery membrane covered the very edges, but it appeared to be oozing a mixture of blood and weeping a yellowish looking liquid which was probably pus. Not to mention, reddish, pulp-ish like, gore was slowly escaping from the hole. The skin around the hole was red, hot, and appeared inflamed and large, red, angry blisters marred his pale skin nearby the wound.

Although, his entire body was tremble and Sakura could guess how much pain he was in, the elder Uchiha opened his mouth to speak. Surprisingly enough, the man could still perfectly articulate his words with the eloquence he had before, not showing a once of pain.

"This is the result of the wound Sasuke gave me with the kantana of his infused with his chidori. I barely managed to survive. I managed to reconstruct one last powerful genjutsu for Sasuke to believe I was dead, to give myself enough time to escape from the scene. He missed my heart by minor inches. For the last year, I have been on run and I've cut all my ties with Akatsuki in order for others not to become suspicious. I've encountered many medic-nins but none could seem to fully heal the wound, let alone at least 20 percent of it. I've been hanging on by the edge and I will only have a few meager months to live if I do not heal the wound completely. I will die.

However, due to the recent wounds you've inflicted on me, Sakura-san, I will die much, much, sooner."

His eyes were bloodshot and then rolled in the back of his head. "However, I still have enough strength to cast Amaratsu with Mangekyo Sharingan. The entire area will envelope in flames, and I will die. So, will you, Sakura-san. You too, are fatally injured and will not have enough time to escape. I have deal to offer to you. If you want to live, you will heal the wound, Sasuke inflicted on me. Otherwise, you and I, can burn in the black flames of hell, bathing in Amaratsu's fury for eternity."

_Tricky bastard. _Her choices included either, to relinquish her claim to the bounty on his head and be deemed as a traitor to Konoha or death. There was no easy way out of this situation. Her choice needed to be wise. This would be no quick decision. It was like, choosing one door, out of two doors, one door was the right door and the other would be leading to immediate death.

If she chose to heal him, she would eventually be found by Konoha and execution with out a trial, would be her immediate sentence. She would forever have the stigma of a traitor branded on her name, even after her death.

She owed nothing to Konoha. She didn't deserve to be a slave to Konoha. What had Konoha done for her? Konoha caused her nothing but nauseous guilt, pain, sadness, and anger and in return, she had given Konoha, her honor, her duty, her life literally, and her virginity. She was a social outcast and the residents hated her. Her existence in Konoha made worth nothing.

It had been a very long time, since she had felt any love towards Konoha.

There was no way to escape. Her chakra was very, very, low. Her head was still spinning, from when he had casted Tsukuyomi. Besides if she ran, she would be a dog running with it's tail behind it's legs. _A shinobi always fights until he/she wins or until death _was a popular quote from the shinobi handbook.

If she chose death, it would be a very, very, painful death. She had heard rumors of men dying of Amaratsu and it wasn't pleasant. It would be honorable, dying for Konoha. However, deep down in her heart, she knew it wasn't something she wanted to do. She loathed Konoha for the suffering it had caused her.

She remained silent, silently thinking through all of her options.

"Hurry, Sakura-san. You don't have much time to decide. Please, make the choice now." His voice sharp, as he tore a piece from his travel's cloak, applying pressure with it to the fatal wound under his ribs, trying to stanch the gushing flow of blond erupting from it. In seconds, the cloth, heavy with dripping blood, was stained a crimson red.

"I choose to live. I shall heal your wounds." Sakura said quietly. God forbid, she hoped she had made the right decision.

"Very well, Sakura-san. I shall keep my word. However, we have to decide on some terms. Please don't decide to try anything such as disclosing the information I just told you or slitting my throat in the dark of the night, while I'm sleeping. I will know if you try something. Always remember, Sakura-san, even though you might have enough anger and hatred in you unlike my brother, I am stronger than you. It may not seem like it, but I have some tricks up my sleeves. I will keep my word as long as you keep your word. Do you agree to these terms?"

"I accept these terms. I have no qualms." Sakura managed to say coolly, with out a quiver in her voice, tightly clutching her firsts.

"Then the deal's sealed." She watched, hypnotized, as dark, cerise, blood slowly dripped from his pink, lips.

That was her last thought before she felt an excruciating amount of pain like her skull was being crack in half and her surrounds swirled before her, slowly disappearing before her.

* * *

_End of Chapter Five. _

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**Playlist:**

**Butterfly by Crazytown**

**Higher by Creed**

**Bodies by Drowning Pool **

**Sour Girl – Stone Temple Pilots**

**Liar Liar (Burn in Hell) – The Used**

A/N – I know I haven't updated in some time. I was so busy with finals after April and things went downhill from there for a short time. I was piled with shit and I absolutely struggled with school, trying to balance out work at the same time. Now, it's summer and I'm trying to get back on track with all my fics. I'm sorry if I haven't replied and I'm so sorry and now I am able to reply again so ask and request all you want right now. I apologize for any grammatical or spelling errors since I'm in need of a BETA again. Anyways, I'm wishing all of you a happy fourth of July!

Sincerely,

MagenKyotenChiten.


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